322 



THE MAPLE FAMILY. 



minate the following spring. But Acer leucoderme blooms so early that 

 sometimes its seedlings are well started in life before the winter comes on. 

 Of the genus the many species have usually well marked characteristics 

 and are respectively known not only through their silvicultural character 

 but by the usefulness of their wood, the properties of their sap, and the 

 ability of their barks to yield a red or yellow colouring matter. 



A. sacchdrium, silver maple, white or soft maple, is also one which comes 

 early into bloom and especially when growing along a stream, it then often 

 putting forth as early as February. Its flowers, in dense, lateral, sessile or 

 nearly sessile clusters, are therefore well on with their seed-making before 

 the leaves have begun to show. The large samaras, of which one wing is 

 frequently imperfectly developed, diverge widely and hang from long 

 drooping pedicels. The tree is very graceful, with wide-spreading branches, 

 its leaves being finely cut and the sinuses narrow and pointed. And long 

 in the country it has passed from mouth to mouth that when upturned and 

 showing their silvery undersides, rain is on its way. 



A. rubriwi, red or swamp maple, water maple, also blooms through the 

 lower districts as early as February, and even in the north during a mild 

 winter, will open its buds at the first approach of spring-like weather. Its 

 flowers are the mo§t beautiful of all the maples, being crimson, sometimes 

 golden-tinted and growing in full, lateral clusters. The small petals are 

 narrowly oblong and the protruding stamens of the sterile individuals em- 

 bellish them greatly with beauty. In shape the leaves are very variable, 

 mostly, however, their three to five sharp lobes are irregularly dentate, and 

 they are slightly pubescent and pale underneath. Not knowing, perhaps,- 

 the constancy of this latter feature, the people about the Dismal Swamp 

 believe that they in some mysterious way turn to white before a storm. 

 Although smaller in the south than through its northern range, the red 

 maple is still one of the most beautiful trees, its crimson bloom covering its 

 grey structure in earliest spring and hanging as a veil over the grim woods. 

 In the autumn also its foliage turns to a brilliant unrivalled scarlet. Besides 

 the uses of the wood in making furniture and other things, the tree's bark 

 has been used to dye with and makes an excellent ink. This the Indians 

 knew, as well as how to produce an oil by boiling the white oak's acorns in 

 a strong lye made from the wood's ashes. 



BLACK SUGAR MAPLE. 



Acer nigrum, 



FAMILY SHAPE HEIGHT RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Maple. Rounded. 50-iooyi'tV. Louisiana and Ala- April, May. 



baina northivard. 



Bark : almost black, rough ; that of the twigs, greyish or green when very 

 young and marked with small, pale dots. Leaves : with long, smooth grooved 



