THE MAPLE FAMILY. 323 



petioles; broadly rounded, cordate or squared at the base and having from three 

 to five broad, short h)bes with taper-pointed apices, the lower ones not pruniincnt 

 or absent, usually entire. S/zn/sc-s: rounded, squared or pointed. Bright grccii 

 on both sides, glabrous above and bucon\ing so underneath. Mimu rs: growing 

 in drooping corymbs. Samcnus: abundant; divergent; ab<jut one and one half 

 inches long. 



A tree so large and beautiful as the black maple should, it seems, be 

 known by all, and undoubtedly it is familiar to many who also perchance 

 mistake it for the sugar maple. To this noble tree it is indeed very similar 

 but can always be distinguished by its almost black bark, the greenness of 

 its leaves on both sides, and their shorter and broader lobes. These latter, 

 however, are subject to many variations. In very large quantities the sap 

 of this tree will yield sugar. 



A. Sdcchariiin, sugar maple, rock, or hard maple, grows mostly along the 

 mountainous parts of our range where its rounded, full proportions and the 

 fine, symmetrical shape of its rather pale leaves make it as elsewhere one 

 of the most imposing individuals of our silva. Northward it is the principal 

 source of maple sugar, but in the south it will not yield to the same e.xtent 

 and therefore the industry is principally in vogue among the natives for their 

 own use. The mountainous district also is usually far from a market. 

 Through the testimony of early writers we have reason to believe that the 

 Indians knew the art of sugar-making and that they strengthened them- 

 selves by drinking the sap when thirsty on their journeys. It was as wine 

 to them. Further northward they knew sugar-making as an industry and 

 marketed the sugar in birch-bark cornucopias. From the tree's ashes im- 

 mense quantities of potash are marketed and the valuable bird's-€ye and 

 curly maple are varieties of its wood. 



- A. Pennsyivcifiicton, sin^Qd maple, or moose wood, is shade-loving, and 

 occurs through the forests in ravines and cool places with often the hem- 

 locks, beeches and sugar maples. On the slopes of the Alleghanies and 

 Blue Ridge mountains it forms its best development. Always, however, it is 

 a handsome tree with greenish flowers produced in long, swaying racemes, 

 while the samaras which follow them vary from a pale apple-green to soft 

 shades of tan. In the winter it is still beautiful, its trunk and branches 

 being vertically marked with lines of pale blue. Most often perhaps the 

 mountaineers that " claim to know " the trees, call it the goosefoot maple, 

 because its leaves which broaden towards the summit and divide into three 

 well cut lobes suggest to them that bird's foot. 



A. spicaticfH, mountain maple, sometimes known as the low maple, is 

 found through our range mostly in the mountains and usually as a shrub of 

 from six to ten feet high ; although on the slopes of high peaks in Tennessee 

 and North Carolina it becomes a small tree. Its bark is never striped, as 



