546 



NEW ENGLAND TKEES IN WINTER. 



BOX ELDER 



Ash-leaved Maple. 



Acer Negundo L. 



Ne^!^?!("?o aceroiiles ^loench Xetjundo Xegundo Karst. 



HABIT — A medium sized tree 40-50 ft. high with a trunk diameter 

 of 1-2 ft.; dixiding" \ov.' do\\"n. sometimes only a few feet from the ground 

 into a number of stout spreading branches, forming a wide liead. 



B-VRIv — Pale gray or light brown, broken by rather shallow f iirro-wa 

 into narrow. Iirm. oUise. irregular hat -topped ridg"es \vhi<_h are f urt her 

 crai. ktid horizontally; bark of young trunks and branches smooth, with 

 raised buff 1 entice Is, which are horizontally more or less elongated. 



T\\ ICS — Stout, reddisli-purple or green, smooth, polished or often with 



a whitish bloom which readily rubs off. L,EXT1CELS — Lons|>i . iious, 

 forming somewhat longitudinally elongated, scattered, raised buff dots. 



LFAF-SCARS — Opposite, narrow V-shaped, margined by a lighter 

 coh red ouior rim, half encircling the twig, the adjacent edgfS of 

 opposite leaf -scars meeting and prolonged upward into a ronsi>icuous 

 narrow tooth, the inner margin often hairy. BUNDLE-SCARS — large, 

 3 in number, generally undivided. 



Ill ns — Shrirt- stalked, red. more or less wh it e- ■woolly, the termi nal 

 buds <:i mm. or less long, rather longer than the appressed lateral buds. 

 BUD-SCALES- — outer pair less densely woolU- than inner pairs, grown 

 together at base, entirely enclosing the bud or slightly gaping and 

 expensing n>^xt inner pair; outer scales of lateral buds often distended 

 by formation in their axils of stout collateral buds. 



FRl'IT — o.o-o cm. long in drooping racemes, wings spreading at a 

 sharp angle, seed-like portion long, flatfish; fruit stalks remaining on 

 tree throughout winter. The Box Elder is strictly dioecious, therefore 

 fruit is not borne by all individuals. 



C<OIPARISOJVS — The stout brightly colored red or green tT\'igs and 

 branohiets often covered with a bloom the first year and the downy 

 buds with generally collateral buds present on some of the tT\'"igs, as 

 well as the narrow tooth formed at the junction of adjacent deeply 

 V-shaped leaf-scars render the Box Elder easily distinguishable in 

 the winter condition. 



DISTRIBITIOX — Banks of streams, lakes and borders of swamps; a 

 rapid groover and often planted as a shade tree, thrives best in moist 

 soil but is tolerant of dry situations. Infrequent from eastern Ontario 

 to Lake of the Woods: abundant from Manitoba westward to the Rocky 

 mountains south of .'i5 degrees north latitude; south to Florida; west to 

 the Rocky and Wahsatch mount ains. reaching its greatest size in the 

 river bottoms of the Ohio and its tributaries. 



IN NEW ENGLAND — :\Iaine — along the St. John and its tributaries, 

 especially in the French villages, the commonest roadside tree, brought 

 in from the wild state according to the people there; thorouglily estab- 

 lished young trees, originating from planted specimens, in various parts 

 of the state: Ne'n' Elampshire — occasional along the Connecticut, abun- 

 dant at Walpole; extending north "ward as far as South Charlestown; 

 Vermont — shores of the Winooski river and of Lake Champlain. 



IN CONNECTICUT — Rare or local; apparently native along the Housa- 

 tonic river fr<mi f.'xford i" Salisbury: escaped from cultivation at 

 Putnam, Groton, Southington, Wethersfield and Norwalk. 



AA'OOD — Light, soft, close-grained, not strong, creamy T\'hite w^ith 



thick hardly distinguishable sapwood; occasionally manufactured into 

 rlieap fiirniture and sometimes used for the interior finish of houses, 

 for wooden ware, cooperage and paper pulp. Small quantities of 

 maple sugar are occasionally made from this tree. 



