644 



The Maples 



Fig. 593- — Dwarf Maple. 



across, 3-lobed or 5-lobed, or often 3-parted, 

 rather dark green above, and apple-green on 

 the under side, the lobes pointed or blunt, 

 sharply toothed, the middle lobe narrowed at 

 the base, rhombic in outline. The flowers are 

 mostly dioecious, in small sessile or short- 

 stalked corymbs or corymb-hke racemes, open- 

 ing in May; the sepals are blunt, oblong or ob- 

 long-spatulate, petal-hke; the petals are oblong 

 or linear-oblong, yellow-green, and vary from 

 half as long to about the length of the sepals; 

 the stamens, even those of the sterile flowers, 

 are not longer than the sepals; the samaras are 

 smooth, shining, 1.5 to 3 cm. long, more or less 

 diverging, the wing 8 to 12 mm. wide. 



The wood is close-grained, light brown and 

 hard, with a specific gravity of about 0.60; it is 

 not of commercial importance. 



7. DOUGLAS' MAPLE — Acer Donglasii Hooker 



Douglas' maple much resembles the Dwarf maple, and has been considered 

 by several authors as not at all different from that species, but a study of many 

 specimens of both leads us to re- 

 gard the two as distinct. It ranges 

 from Alaska through British Co- 

 lumbia to Alberta, Montana, Idaho, 

 and Oregon. While usually a bush, 

 it sometimes attains the habit of a 

 tree and reaches a height of about 

 10 meters. 



Tie bark is smooth and red- 

 brown, the twigs purple. The leaves 

 differ from those of the Dwarf maple 

 in being relatively large, often 8 to 

 10 cm. across, and as a rule are less 

 deeply lobed, although sometimes 

 trifoHolate; the middle lobe is, how- 



FiG. 594. — Douglas' Maple. 



ever, ovate in outline, Httle or not at all narrower at the base than above it; the 

 leaf-margins are sharply toothed aU around, pale green beneath, dark green 

 above. The greenish yellow dioecious flowers are borne in short corymb-like 

 racemes, opening in May, after the leaves are partly grown; the stamens of the 

 sterile flowers are about as long as the spatulate or nearly linear sepals and petals. 



