MAPLE FAMILY 



Stamens. — Seven to eight inserted on the disk, hairy ; filaments 

 long in the sterile flowers, short in the fertile ones. Anthers introrse, 

 two-celled ; cells opening longitudinally. 



Pistil. — Ovary superior, hairy, two-celled, compressed contrary to 

 the dissepiments, wing-margined ; style of two long, exserted, stig- 

 matic lobes, united at base only ; ovules two in each cell, one of 

 which aborts. 



Fruit. — Two samaras united forming a maple key. Borne in 

 clusters on long pendulous footstalks. Wings vary from one-half 

 to one inch long, brown, thin, divergent. One capsule of the key is 

 usually empty. Seeds reddish brown. September. Cotyledons 

 thick, leaf-like. 



South America possesses the Milk Tree, India the Bread Tree, but it is 

 reserved as a sort of climatic paradox for our temperate north to furnish the 

 very top of luxury in the shape of the Sugar Tree. A man who could persuade 

 these three staple producers to grow on his plantation could henceforth live 

 independent of the milkman, the baker, and the grocer. It would be easy work 

 to gather the yield of the two tropical trees, but the sweet of the maple would 

 still have to be gained by the sweat of the brow. Besides its delicious sweet- 

 ness, there is a rich, almost oleaginous quality in maple syrup which suggests 

 what the maple nut would have been if Nature had said, " Consider the ways 

 of the hickory, beech, and chestnut, how thrifty and hospitable ! Their bounty 

 keeps my birds and my four-footed groundlings all winter through. Do thou 

 ripen a kernel of thine own more toothsome than theirs." What Nature did 

 say was briefly and practically, " Invest in sugar." More cold, more sweet, 

 seems to be the law governing the saccharine supply, as though there were 

 warmth and food in the sugar principle, and as though it were excited by keen 

 weather to greater activity in order to meet the needs of the tree. The sap of 

 all wood in early spring is perceptibly sweet. If the discharge of sap from 

 other trees were as free as from the maple it might be profitable to tap them 

 also, as the butternut, for example. It is plain that Nature drops a httle sugar 

 in the milk on which she rears her nursery. All young ones love sweets, even 

 to the baby leaves on the old trees. —Edith Thomas. 



Unquestionably, the Sugar Maple ranks among the finest 

 of American forest trees. It is both useful and beautiful. 

 When young its full leafy head is often a pure oval. In the 

 forest it frequently rises seventy feet without a branch, and 

 spreads its leaves to the sunlight one hundred and twenty 

 feet above its base. When growing in the open it some- 

 times develops into a great cylindrical column, sometimes its 

 head becomes a broad dome. The foliage is always dense. 

 Erect in youth and maturity, in old age its trunk is often 

 gnarled and disfigured. 



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