214 BOTANICAL GAZETTE. [ August, 
an account of the conspicuous differences between Acer saccharinum ~ 
and its so-called variety nigrum, giving figures of the characteristic dis- 
similarities in foliage and fruit! The statement was made that the two 
maples are evidently specifically distinct. At all events, they are so un- 
like in general appearance that. they may be recognized at a glance at a 
distance of four or five rods, In ornamental value they are clearly 
' different. A new study of trees in flower and in young foliage also re- 
veals characteristic differences. In my judgment the two are distinct 
species. I have not been able to detect intermediate forms. The follow- 
ing characterizations will separate them 
Acer 8 m Wangenheim. er aves three to five-lobed, the 
sinuses narrow and deep, the lobes furnished with large and long-acumi- 
nate teeth, glabrous, plane, rather thin, the basal sinus open; stip’ 
none : nodes of the young shoots usually reddish: inflorescence smooth 
or nearly so; bracts none or minute: staminate flowers somewhat cam- 
panulate; the calyx two lines or less in length: lobes of the fruit little 
spreading. 
grum Michaux.—Leaves larger, three-lobed, the sinuses Very 
sihad iat iiillow, the lobes entire or very bluntly toothed, the apex not 
so prominently acuminate, pubescent or villous beneath and also on the 
petiole when young, limp, the sides conspicuously drooping, thi thick and 
soft, the basal sinus usually closed or the lobes overlapping and causing 
the leaf to appear slightly peltate; stipules conspicuous, foliaceous and 
ciliate, early caducous;? nodes of the young shoots not colored: inflor-: 
escence pubescent or villous; the bracts conspicuous and ciliate: stami- 
nate flowers cylindrical; the calyx two and a half or more lines long: 
fruit smaller, the lobes usually diverging.—In aspect this species is much 
. heavier and duller than the other, owing to the drooping and W eee 
= 
pearance of the large cloth-like leaves.—L. H. BarLey, Agricultural Col- 
lege, Mich. 
EDITORIAL. 
IT 18 THOUGHT by some to be desirable for every form of scientific 
work to have its center at Washington. The reason for this is ap 
sentimental, for it sounds large to have a “national” museum OF Pd 
tional” herbarium, and partly financial, for it is argued that at 
has given its fostering care most liberally to scientific work has to-day 
rr 
1Popular Ga ardening, Nov. 1881, 24, 4 fi 
*Observations upon the ee 
pecurrence f are also. i 
Amer. Nat., vi, 767, vii, 422, and by Wheele i: go ae in ie species a 
