MAPLE FAMILY 



This is our only maple with compound leaves, and so ac- 

 customed are we to simple leaves for the maples that were 



it not for the keys hanging 

 in graceful clusters from the 

 branches we should question 

 its right to be a maple. But 

 just as certainly as an acorn in- 

 dicates an oak, so does a maple 

 key characterize a maple. 

 . The Ash-leaved Maple is a 

 handsome tree with spreading 

 branches. Its habitat extends 

 as far east as Cayuga Lake, 

 New York, west to the foot- 

 hills of the Rockies, north to 

 Winnepeg and south to Flor- 

 ida. Compared with its com- 

 panions on the river bottoms 

 it is a small tree, and like the 

 sugar maple it can flourish in 

 the shade. The tree is rare 

 east of the Appalachian range 

 and beyond the Rockies it 

 undergoes a mountain change 

 and appears in California as 

 a different variety. It grows 

 rapidly and is now largely 

 planted in the treeless west, 

 and, strange to say, this lover 

 of water accepts the climatic 

 change and flourishes. Like the silver maple there is no 

 touch of red in its autumnal coloring, its leaves become a 

 pure pale yellow before they fall. 



Keys of Box Elder, Acer ucgundo. 



86 



