MAPLE FAMILY 



Fruit. — Two samaras united forming a maple key. Borne on 

 drooping stems tliree to four inches \o\v^ ; scarlet, dark red, some- 

 times brown ; wings tliin, con\crgent at first, divergent when full 

 grown, one-half to an inch long, one-tounh to one-half an inch broad. 

 May, June. Seed dark red, germinates immediately after falling to 

 the ground. Cotyledons thm. 



Tlie scarlet maple-keys l)etrny, 

 What potent blood liath modest May. 



— R.vLi'ii Waldo Emerson. 



Tlie maple crimsons to a coral reef. 



— J,\.\ii.:s Russell Lowell. 



A small Red Maple has grown, perchance, far away at the head of some retired 

 valley, a mile from any road, unobserved. It has faithfully discharged all the 

 duties of a maple there, all winter and summer ne^leetf d none of its economies, 

 but added to its stature in the \irtne which belongs to a maj le, by a steady 

 growth f(jr so many months, and is nearer hea\-en than )t was in tlie sprhig. It 

 has faithfully husbanded its sap, and affordetl a shelter to tlie wandering bird, 

 has long since ripened its seeds and committetl them tt» the winds. ]i deserve^ 

 well of mapledom. Its leaves have been asking it frcan time to time in a whis- 

 per, " When shall we redden ? " and now in this month of September, this month 

 of travelling, when men are hastening to the seaside, or the mountains, or the 

 lakes, this modest maple, still w iihottt budging an inch, travels in its reputa- 

 tion — runs up its scarlet-flag on that hillside, which shows that it has finished its 

 summer's work licfore all other trees, and withdrawn from the contest. .\t the 

 eleventh hour of the year, the tree which no scrutiny could have detected here 

 when it was most industricais is thus, by die tint of its maturity, by its very 

 blushes, revealed at last to the careless and distant traveller, and leads his 

 thoughts away from the dusty road into those brave solitudi-s which it inhabits ; it 

 flashes out conspicuous with all the \irtue and beauty I'fa inn pie— ../(-cr riihrmn. 

 We may now read its title, or rubric, clear. lis virtues not its sins are asscarlef 



— llKNKV I). Ti-IOKE.iU. 



Never was a tree more appropriately named than the Red 

 iMaple. Its first blossom flushes red in the .April sunlight, its 

 keys ripen scarlet in early Mav, all summer Ion,"- its leaves 

 wing on crimson or scarlet stems, its young twigs flame in 

 the same colors and later, amid all the lirilliancy of the au- 

 tumnal forest, it stands pre-eminent and unapproachable. 



The Red Maple shows ;i decided tendency to vary in the 

 shape of its leaves. For this reason it has been divided into 

 varieties, but these have been given up because the charac- 

 ters do not remain constant. Of two red maples standing 



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