Acer. SAPES T DACE.£. 1Q7 



between Monterey and Clear Lake, it is a widely branched tree, the base much expanded and oc- 

 casionally 6 feet in diameter, the trunk halt" as large and branching low, the main branches 1 to 

 2 feet thick, tbe whole forming a dense head 25 to -It) feet high and of still greater breadth. In 

 May, when in full Mower, it is a beautiful tree, but the leaves often fall before midsummer, so 

 that for much of the year it is bale. Usually only two or three flowers in each thyrse perfect 

 their fruit, often but one. The wood is soft and brittle. 



2. ACER, Tourn. Maple. 



Flowers polygamo-dioecious. Calyx colored, usually 5-lobed. Petals as many or 



uone. Stamens 3 to 12, usually 8, inserted with the petals upon a lobed disk. 



Ovary 2-lobed, 2-celled : ovules a pair in each cell : styles 2, elongated. Fruit a 



double samara or key, divaricately 2-winged above, separable at maturity, each 



1-seeded. Albumen none. Cotyledons large and thin, variously coiled or folded. 



— Trees or shrubs ; leaves opposite, palmately lobed (in American species), without 



stiptdes ; flowers small, in terminal racemes, umbel-like corymbs, or fascicles, the 



pedicels not jointed. 



About 50 species, mostly of the northern hemisphere. Of the 9 species of the United States 

 5 are confined to the Atlantic States, some of them valuable forest trees and extensively planted 

 for shade and ornament. The other species of the Rocky Mountains and westward are of far less 

 importance. The wood in general is hard and close-grained, and sugar is made from the sap of 

 several species. 



* Floivers in racemes : body of the fruit hispid. 



1. A. macrophyllum, Pursh. A tree, 50 to 90 feet high, 2 or 3 feet in diam- 

 eter : leaves 6 to 10 inches broad or more, pubescent when young, becoming gla- 

 brate, cordate with a deep narrow sinus, deeply 3-5-cleft; the segments sinuate with 

 2 or 3 acute lobes : flowers large, numerous, fragrant, yellow, in crowded pendulous 

 racemes 3 to 6 inches long, appearing after the leaves: calyx 2 or 3 lines long: 

 petals oblong: stamens 9 or 10, with hairy filaments: fruit densely hairy, the 

 glabrous wings 15 to 20 lines long and more or less divergent. — Hook. Fl. i. 112, 

 t. 38; Xutt. Sylva, ii. 77, t. G7 ; Newberry, Pacif. R. Rep. vi. 21. 



In mountain ravines from Santa Barbara to Fraser River ; in California mostly confined to the 

 ranges along the coast and not so large as in Oregon, where it is sometimes found five feet in diam- 

 eter and valuable for its timber. The wood is white, hard, and takes a fine polish. The bark of 

 the trunk is light gray, on the younger branches green with stripes of lighter color. 



* * Floivers in loose umbel-like corymbs : fruit smooth. 



2. A. circinatum, Pnrsh. (Vine-Maple.) A shrub or small tree : leaves 3 to 



5 inches 1 ul, .-limtlv petioled, somewhat villous, at length glabrous, with usually 



a tuft of hairs at the base, rounded-cordate with a broad and often shallow sinus, 



7 — 9-lobed nearly to the middle; tbe lobes acuminate, sharply serrate: corymbs 

 loosely 10 — 20-flowered, terminal on slender 2-leaved brancblets: sepals red or pur- 

 ple, villous, 2nr.'S lines long, much exceeding the greenish-white petals: stamens 



8 ; filaments villous at base : fruit 10 to 14 lines long, the wings spreading at right 

 in les to the peduncle. — Hunk. Fl. i. 112, t. 39 j "ISTtitt. Sylva, ii. 80, t. 68; New- 

 berry, Pacif. K. Rep. vi. 21. 



Northern California, in pine forests, and northward to British Columbia ; in this SI 

 shrub, in Oregon sometimes a tree lie i>r In feet high. In moist places and on rich alluvial soils 

 ii often takes • omplete possession, the vine-like stems growing in clusters from the same root, and 

 themselves striking root wherevei they touch the ground and sending out nnmerous offshoots. 

 Thus interlaced and fastened together they Conn dense dark thickets almost imp ni trable. The 

 wood is heavier and closer-grained than in the last species. 



3. A. glabrum, Torr. A shrub or small tree: [eaves glabrous, 2 to I inches 

 broad, rounded cordate in outline with a shallow sinus, laciniatelj 3 — 5-lobed, 



or le>s deeply or sometimes completely '■'< parted; the lobes doubly-serrate with v> rj 



