is used where you live. Wlien you do, will you not write and tell me, 

 for that is what I have been trying to find for a long while ? 



I want you now to see if you can pick out a maple tree. Whether 

 you live in the city or country you will be pretty sure to find one, for 

 maples are very plentiful in the woods, and are more largely planted 

 than any other form in city streets. If you compare the maple with 

 the oak you will find it neither so thick nor so tall. The bark is thin- 

 ner than in the oak, and not nearly so rough, but like the oak is light 

 colored in some forms and dark colored in others. The branches of 

 the maples spread in such a way as to give abundant shade and at the 

 same time give to the tree a very beautiful shape. 



Now pick a leaf of the maple and examine it carefully. As in the 

 case of the oak you will find the leaf stalk bears a single green blade, 

 or, in other words, that it is a simple leaf. But now look at the vein- 

 lets. Do they arise from the same point on the mid-vein or from dif- 

 ferent points!^ Measure the length and breadth of an oak leaf, and 

 then the length and breadth of a maple leaf. Does this difference in 

 the way in which the veinlets arise have any relation to the shape 

 of the leaf? Leaves in which the veinlets are arranged, as in the oaks, 

 are said to be pinnately veined. Where the veinlets are arranged, as 

 in the maple, they are said to be palmately veined. See how many 

 dift'erent kinds of trees you can find in which the leave? are pinnately 

 veined. How many in which they are palmately veined. In the 

 maples, as in the oaks, you will find that the edge of the leaf is never 

 entire, but is more or less deeply lobed. How many of these lobes are 

 there in a maple leaf? Does the distribution of the large veinlets 

 bear any relation to this lobing? Trace the outline of a maple leaf 

 and fill in mid-vein and veinlets. 



The floM ers of the maple are more conspicuous than those of the 

 oaks. Instead of being arranged in spikes they are arranged in clus- 

 ters. They are sometimes yellowish in color, and sometimes a bright 

 red. In the maples, which appear first, the flowers or loaves? At 

 what date do they appear? The fruit of the maple is a strange looking, 

 two-winged affair. Notice when the fruit is ripe how it is carried by 

 the wind from beneath the shadow of the parent tree. When the fruit 

 finally reaches the ground are the wings pointed upward or down- 

 ward? Why is this so? Examine the seedlings of the maple. Com- 

 pare the shape of the young leaves with those of the fully grown 

 tree. 



We have four kinds of maples in Indiana. The most abundant of 

 these is the sugar maple, which is found in every county in the State. 



