ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST. 



185 



trees. Probably, however, the Soft Maples are 

 generally dicecious; that is, all the flowers of 

 one tree are staminate, and all the flowers of 

 another are pistillate. 



But, how many of our readers will say that 

 they never saw maple flowers? Well, then, 

 look about you in this month of April, and you 

 may find new pleasure in these beautiful trees. 

 If, however, you are far south, you may be too 

 late for the flowers this season, and may have 

 to content yourselves with a view of the fruit 

 only. 



First, let us describe the Silvei'-leaf Maple 

 Acei- dasycarpum, Ehrh, Fig. 116.) The flowers 



[Fig. 116.] 



Silver-leat Maple. 



are in small clusters proceeding from later.al 

 buds, which are developed before the leaves ap- 

 pear. Each cluster or fascicle contains five or six 

 yellowish or purple flowers, either perfect— i. 

 e., with stamens and pistils — or containing only 

 one kind of organs. The staminate flowers have 

 each four or five stamens; the fertile flowers 

 have each two pistils united below, and expand- 

 ing into a pair of long, broad wings or keys 

 isamara) , which are quite downy when young, 

 and when mature are about two inches long. 



The stalk or pedicel of these keys is very short 

 at first, but it elongates so as to become an inch 

 or more in length. Each key contains one large 

 seed. They mature and drop from the tree in 

 May. The leaves are large, with three to five 

 lobes, pointed and toothed, or, sometimes again 

 divided into smaller lobes. They are downy 

 when young, becoming silvery-white on the 

 underside. The tree attains a large size, the 

 wood is white, the bark ash-colored and smooth, 

 except on the large trunks. The leaves present 

 considerable diversity of form — our illustration 

 shows leaf and fruit, a little less than full size. 



[Fig. 117.] 



Red Maple. 



The Red Maple {Acer rubrum, L., Fig. 117) is 

 usually a smaller tree, the twigs reddish, the 

 branches gray, and the bark rougher than the 

 pieceding. The leaves are smaller, not so deeply 

 lobed, whitish, but not silvery beneath, and more 

 toothed and notched than the other. The flow- 

 ers are usually bright scarlet with small oblong 

 petals ; the wings or keys smooth, when mature 

 about an inch long, and on long, drooping stalks. 

 The wings of fruit are smaller, smoother, less 

 spreading or diverging from each other, and on 

 longer pedicels than the other species. Tl;e 

 tree usually grows in wetter ground, but will 

 flourish when transplanted to high and dry soil. 



These are the usual and more prominent dis- 

 tinctive points between the two species, but 

 there is such a diversity in the leaves, that it is 

 sometimes difficult to decide, withont flowers 

 and fruit, to which species a given tree belongs. 



