THE JSIAPLES 195 



The Black Maple 

 A. nigrum, Michx. 



The black maple is so like the sugar maple that they are 

 easily confused, but its stout branchlets are orange-colored, 

 the leaves are smooth and green on both sides, scantly 

 toothed, and they droop as if their stems were too weak to 

 hold up the blades. The keys spread more widely than 

 those of the sugar maple. 



The black maple is the sugar maple of South Dakota 

 and Iowa. It becomes rarer as one goes east. It is an 

 admirable lumber tree, as well as a noble street and shade 

 tree. 



Two soft maples are found in the eastern part of the 

 country, their sap less sweet, their wood softer than the 

 hard maples, and their fitness for street planting corres- 

 pondingly less. 



The Red Maple 



A. ruhrum, Linn. 



The red maple is a lover of swamps. It thrives, 

 however, on hillsides, if the soil be moist; and is planted 

 widely in parks and along village streets. In beauty it 

 excels all other maples. In early spring its swelling buds 

 glow like garnets on the brown twigs {see illustrationsy 

 pages 198-199). Theopeningflowershave red petals, and the 

 first leaves, which accompany the early bloom, are red. 

 In May the dainty fiat keys, in clusters on their long, 

 flexible stems, are as red as a cock's comb, and beautiful 

 against the bright green of the new foliage. In early 

 September in New England, a splash of red in tlie woods. 



