ACER SACCHARINUM, L. 143 



limbs a pendulous fringe sometimes reaching to the ground. 

 Distinguished in winter by its characteristic graceful outlines, 

 and by its flower-buds conspicuously scattered along the 

 tips of the branchlets ; in summer by the silvery-white under- 

 surface of its deeply cut leaves. It is among the first of the 

 New England trees to blossom, preceding the red maple by 

 one to three weeks. 



Bark. Bark of trunk smooth and gray in young trees, 

 becoming with age rougher and darker, more or less ridged, 

 separating into thin, loose scales; young shoots chestnut- 

 colored in autumn, smooth, polished, profusely marked with 

 light dots. 



Winter Buds and Leaves. Flower-buds clustered near the 

 ends of the branchlets, conspicuous in winter ; scales imbri- 

 cated, convex, polished, reddish, with ciliate margins ; leaf- 

 buds more slender, about inch long, with similar scales, the 

 inner lengthening, falling as the leaf expands. Leaves simple, 

 opposite, 3-5 inches long, of varying width, light green above, 

 silvery -white beneath, turning yellow in autumn ; lobes 3, or 

 more usually 5, deeply cut, sharp-toothed, sharp-pointed, more 

 or less sublobed ; sinuses deep, narrow, with concave sides ; 

 base sub-heart-shaped or truncate ; stems long. 



Inflorescence. March to April. Much preceding the leaves ; 

 from short branchlets of the previous year, in simple, crowded 

 umbels ; flowers rarely perfect, the sterile and fertile some- 

 times on the same tree and sometimes on different trees, 

 generally in separate clusters, yellowish-green or sometimes 

 pinkish; calyx 5-notched, wholly included in bud-scales; 

 petals none; sterile flower long, stamens 3-7 much exserted, 

 filaments slender, ovary abortive or none : fertile flowers 

 broad, stamens about the length of calyx-tube, ovary woolly, 

 with two styles scarcely united at the base. 



Fruit. Fruit ripens in June, earliest of the New England 

 maples. Keys large, woolly when young, at length smooth, 

 widely divergent, scythe-shaped or straight, yellowish-green, 

 one key often aborted. 



Horticultural Value. Hardy in cultivation throughout New 

 England. The grace of its branches, the beauty of its foliage, 



