The Maples 



The sharp eye of the lumberman detects it, and the boards are 

 put aside. They are worth far more than plain, sound lumber 

 of the same species. Hard maple and red maple are the kinds 

 most likely to display this variation from straight grain. Some 

 lumbermen boast that they can "spot" the standing trees; 

 others declare that there is no outward sign that is dependable. 

 Injury to the bark tends to set a trunk to sprouting. Often a 

 multitude of small twigs cover a considerable area, close together, 

 and have only vigour enough to keep their terminal buds poked 

 outside the bark — sometimes not even that — but they still live. 

 Each is the centre of a series of wood rings which are revealed 

 when cut and polished as "birds' eyes" of the maple that veneers 

 a bureau or a dressing table. Curly grain is not so easily accounted 

 for. The wood fibres are longer than in straight grain, and lie 

 upon each other in ripples. Beech often shows this grain, as 

 well as maples and birches. There seems to be no explanation 

 of the cause and method of its formation. In beauty curly 

 maple often excels the more striking "bird's-eye" wood. 



To saw a bird's-eye log in the ordinary way would be to lose 

 most of the beauty of the grain, which can be got only by tan- 

 gential sawing. A special method used is to take short lengths 

 to a saw which cuts a thin layer from the surface of the revolving 

 log. Thus a thin, spiral sheet that will measure one hundred 

 or more feet when spread out can be pared from a single log 

 section before the saw reaches the central pith. Steamed and 

 pressed this veneer wood shows every eye it ever had. 



Silver Maple, Soft Maple (Acer saccharinum, Linn.; Acer 

 dasycarpum, Ehr.) — A large tree, 80 to 120 feet, with wide spread- 

 ing top, trunk soon dividing into long limbs, ending in slender, 

 drooping twigs. Bark reddish brown, furrowed, surface roughly 

 scaly; twigs reddish, smooth. Wood hard, pale brown, close 

 grained; brittle; easy to work. Sap sweet. Whiter buds: leaf 

 buds pointed, red, in pairs; flower buds blunt, red, clustered at 

 nodes. Leaves 4 to 7 inches long, deeply 5-cleft by narrow 

 sinuses, irregularly toothed; smooth, pale green, white beneath, 

 pubescent along veins; yellow in autumn; petioles long, red, 

 flexible. Flowers, March to April, before leaves, greenish yellow, 

 without petals, on spurs or in axils of last year's leaves; fertile 

 and sterile on different branches or oiten on separate trees. Fruit, 

 May, in pairs of winged samaras, i^ to 3 inches long, on short 



371 



