The Maples 



green on both sides. A broken petiole or growing shoot exudes 

 a milky juice. The flowers are yellow, in flat clusters, followed 

 by thin, paired samaras whose wings spread in opposite directions. 

 As the flowers open after the leaves, the samaras are late in 

 ripening, and they germinate the following spring. Seeds of 

 this species may be gathered and shipped without losing their 

 vitality, as do the two "soft maples." 



The Norway maple has proved itself an exceptionally good 

 species for the Middle West. In any region, it holds its leaves 

 much later than other maples, which is a strong argument in its 

 favour, for they are still perfect when they fall. 



There was a time in Rome's luxurious days when men went 

 mad over tables made of curly maple. Not of the sycamore 

 maple, the standard hardwood of Europe to-day, but of the 

 lesser maple, Acer campesiris, the maple of the field. It out- 

 ranked even the precious Arrah, or citron-wood, in popularity 

 among the Imperial "smart set." The best trees grew on the 

 nether slopes of the Alps; and the curly wood came from trees 

 disfigured with knobs and swellings. There were two kinds: 

 one, dark, which came in logs large enough to saw into tables; 

 the other, white, far more beautiful, but always in such small- 

 sized pieces that only curious and dainty articles could be made of 

 it. Often it was worked down so thin that when polished it was 

 transparent, and showed its beautiful patterns as if they were in 

 a pane of glass. 



"The Pavonaceous maple" was that rare grain whose elegant 

 curls and undulations imitated the eyes of a peacock's tail. 

 Workers in maple wood ranked with jewellers and goldsmiths. 

 They made tables with the most beautiful colours and patterns 

 revealed by their polished tops. For such a table Cicero paid 

 ten thousand sesterces. It showed curious "spots and macula- 

 tions" in the natural grain which imitated the colours and shapes 

 of tigers and panthers! One of the Ptolemies had a circular 

 table three inches thick and four feet and a half in diameter for 

 which he gave its weight in gold! Fifteen hundred thousand 

 sesterces — $60,000 — paid by this emperor for a single table, 

 probably represents the limit to which this extravagance was 

 carried. 



380 



