546 NEW ENGLAND TREES IN WINTER. 



BOX ELDER 



Ash-leaved Maple. 



Acer Negundo L. 

 Negundo aceroides Moench Negundo Negundo Karst 



HABIT A medium sized tree 40-50 ft. high with a trunk diameter 

 of 1-2 ft.; dividing low down, sometimes only a few feet from the ground 

 into a number of stout spreading branches, forming a wide head. 



BARK Pale gray or light brown, broken by rather shallow furrows 

 into narrow, firm, close, irregular flat-topped ridges which are further 

 cracked horizontally; bark of young trunks and branches smooth, with 

 raised buff lenticels, which are horizontally more or less elongated. 



TWIGS Stout, reddish-purple or green, smooth, polished or often with 

 a whitish bloom which readily rubs off. LENTICELS conspicuous, 

 forming somewhat longitudinally elongated, scattered, raised buff dots. 



LEAF-SCARS Opposite, narrow V-shaped, margined by a lighter 

 colored outer rim, half encircling the twig, the adjacent edges of 

 opposite leaf-scars meeting and prolonged upward into a conspicuous 

 narrow tooth, the inner margin often hairy. BUNDLE-SCARS large, 

 3 in number, generally undivided. 



BUDS Short-stalked, red, more or less white-woolly, the terminal 

 buds 6 mm. or less long, rather longer than the appressed lateral buds. 

 BUD-SCALES outer pair less densely woolly than inner pairs, grown 

 together at base, entirely enclosing the bud or slightly gaping and 

 exposing next inner pair; outer scales of lateral buds often distended 

 by formation in their axils of stout collateral buds. 



FRUIT 3.5-5 cm. long in drooping racemes, wings spreading at a 

 sharp angle, seed-like portion long, flattish; fruit stalks remaining on 

 tree throughout winter. The Box Elder is strictly dioecious, therefore 

 fruit is not borne by all individuals. 



COMPARISONS The stout brightly colored red or green twigs and 

 branchlets often covered with a bloom the first year and the downy 

 buds with generally collateral buds present on some of the twigs, as 

 well as the narrow tooth formed at the junction of adjacent deeply 

 V-shaped leaf-scars render the Box Elder easily distinguishable in 

 the winter condition. 



DISTRIBUTION Banks of streams, lakes and borders of swamps; a 

 rapid grower and often planted as a shade tree, thrives best in moist 

 soil but is tolerant of dry situations. Infrequent from eastern Ontario 

 to Lake of the Woods; abundant from Manitoba westward to the Rocky 

 mountains south of 55 degrees north latitude; south to Florida; west to 

 the Rocky and Wahsatch mountains, reaching its greatest size in the 

 river bottoms of the Ohio and its tributaries. 



IN NEW ENGLAND Maine along the St. John and its tributaries, 

 especially in the French villages, the commonest roadside tree, brought 

 in from the wild state according to the people there; thoroughly estab- 

 lished young trees, originating from planted specimens, in various parts 

 of the state; New Hampshire occasional along the Connecticut, abun- 

 dant at Walpole; extending northward as far as South Charlestown; 

 Vermont shores of the Winooski river and of Lake Champlain. 



IN CONNECTICUT Rare or local; apparently native along the Housa- 

 tonic river from Oxford to . Salisbury; escaped from cultivation at 

 Putnam, Groton, Southington, Wethersfleld and Norwalk. 



WOOD Light, soft, close-grained, not strong, creamy white with 

 thick hardly distinguishable sapwood; occasionally manufactured into 

 cheap furniture and sometimes used for the interior finish of houses, 

 for wooden ware, cooperage and paper pulp. Small quantities of 

 maple sugar are occasionally made from this tree. 



