640 



TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



on long slender pedicels, in few-flowered fascicles on branches of the previous year, 

 from clustered obtuse buds, the staminate and pistillate in separate clusters on the 

 same or on different trees; sepals oblong, obtuse, as long as and broader than the 

 oblong or linear petals; stamens 5-8, scarlet, with slender filaments exserted in 

 the staminate and included in the pistillate flower; ovary glabrous on a narrow 

 slightly lobed glandular disk; styles slightly united above the base, with long ex- 

 serted stigmatic lobes. Fruit ripening in the spring or early summer on drooping 

 stems 3'-4' long, scarlet, dark red or brown, with thin erect wings, convergent at 

 first, divergent at maturity, \'-\' long and \'-\' wide; seeds dark red, with a rugose 

 coat, \' long, germinating as soon as it falls to the ground. 



A tree, 80-120 high, with a tall trunk 3-4 in diameter, upright branches 

 usually forming a rather narrow head, and branchlets green or dark red when they 

 first appear, becoming dark or bright red and lustrous at the end of their first sum- 

 mer and marked by numerous longitudinal white lenticels, and gray faintly tinged 

 with red in their second year. Winter-buds obtuse, ' long, with thick dark red 

 outer scales, rounded on the back and ciliate on the margins, and inner scales be- 

 coming |'-1' long, narrowly oblong, rounded at the apex and bright scarlet. Bark 

 of young stems and of the branches smooth and light gray, becoming on old trunks 

 \'-\' thick, dark gray, and divided by longitudinal ridges separating on the surface 

 into large plate-like scales. Wood very heavy, close-grained, not strong, light brown 

 often slightly tinged with red, with thick rather lighter colored sapwood; used in 

 large quantities in the manufacture of chairs and other furniture, in turnery, for 

 wooden ware and gun-stocks. 



Distribution. Borders of streams, low wet swamps, and rarely on hillsides; 

 latitude 49 north in Quebec and Qnl^ajio, southward to the Indian and Caloosa 

 rivers, Florida, and westward to western Wisconsin, western Iowa, and the valley of 

 the Trinity River, Texas; one of the most common and generally distributed trees 

 of eastern North America; most abundant in the south, especially in the valley of 

 the Mississippi River, and of its largest size in the river swamps of the lower Ohio 

 and its large tributaries; at the north often covering low wet swamps almost to the 

 exclusion of other trees. Passing into 



Acer rubrum, var. Drummondii, Sarg. 

 An inhabitant of the deep river swamps of southern Arkansas, eastern Texas, 



