Queries and Answers. 503 



** The American sugar maple will grow to the height of 40 ft. It has 

 some resemblance to the Norway maple when the plants are young. The 

 flowers are yellow, disposed in short compound corymbs, composed of im- 

 perfect hermaphrodite and perfect male flowers, the anthers being abortive 

 in the first, and perfect in the last. From this tree the inhabitants of 

 North America make a very good sort of sugar in large quantities. It is 

 very probable that the Americans make sugar from many species of maple, 

 particularly A. riibrum and Negundo /raxinifolium. The juice is obtained 

 by tapping the trees in spring: warm days and frosty nights are most 

 favourable to the plentiful discharge of the sap. A hole is made in the tree, 

 in an ascending direction, with an auger, and a spout is introduced about 

 half an inch, which projects from 3 to 12 in.; it is generally of sumach or 

 elder. The sap will sometimes flow six weeks, according to the tempera- 

 ture of the weather. Troughs are placed under the spouts, to receive the 

 sap, which is carried every day to a large receiver, from which it is con- 

 veyed, after being strained, to the boiler. Lime, eggs, or new milk, is added 

 to the sap, in order to clarify it ; but clear sugar may be made without any 

 of these ingredients. The sugar, after being sufficiently boiled, is grained, 

 clayed, and refined, in the same manner as the cane sugar in the West In- 

 dies. The sooner the sap is boiled the better. It should never be kept 

 more than twenty-four hours. The quality of maple sugar is superior to 

 that which is made in the West Indies from the cane, and it deposits less 

 sediment when dissolved in water. It has more the appearance of sugar- 

 candy. . . . The sugar prepared from the sap of this tree is one of the 

 greatest conveniences to the inhabitants of the western countries, is equal 

 to any other sugar, and procured with little trouble." (Pursh, as quoted 

 by George Don, in his Miller's Dictionary, p. 650.) 



Of these three kinds of maple, we believe that A^cev saccharinum can be 

 obtained from Messrs. Loddiges, and J s cer rubrum and Negundo fr&ximfd- 

 lium (A^cer Negundo L.) can be procured from any nursery where shrub- 

 bery trees are cultivated. — Cond. 



The Spruce Fir does not seem to thrive in England. What can be the 

 reason ? You never see it growing well in a clump. The case is different 

 on the Continent: the whole of the Hartz Mountains in Germany are 

 covered with it, and it affords both fuel and timber for the mines and fur- 

 naces of that district. It is planted or sown, and cut down, in masses, like 

 our coppice woods ; and self-sown seedlings supply the vacancies created 

 by every cutting. In some other parts of Germany, in Bavaria, and part 

 of* Prussia, lines of the spruce fir are used very extensively as hedges, pro- 

 ducing at once shelter and abundance of very durable timber. In like 

 manner, both in France and Germany, hedges, or rather lines of trees, 

 serving as boundary fences, and at the same time as sources of shelter and 

 shade, are used in the same way as thorn hedges are in England. They 

 produce an enormous quantity of timber for fencing and fuel every twenty 

 or thirty years ; and, every year, the fall of their leaves supplies manure. 

 They require no expense in weeding after planting, or in training, pruning, 

 or clipping, as thorn hedges do ; but remain untouched from the day they 

 are planted till the day they are cut down. They are 10 ft. high or upwards 

 when planted, and are put in about 1ft. apart. — A Traveller. London, 

 June 5. 1832. 



Yolygala with variously coloured Flowers. — This plant is as com- 

 mon in some places (for example, on Killiny Hill, near Dublin), as the 

 self, or uncoloured, variety. Numberless analogous instances will occur 

 to every person at all conversant with plants. To assist Mr. Bree in 

 investigating some of the phytological arcana of nature, I would take the 

 liberty respectfully to recommend to him the perusal of Causal Botany, by 

 my friend, Mr. David Bishop, Curator of the Belfast Botanic Garden. — 

 E. Murphy. Dublin, Feb. 7. 1832. 



IK 4 



