MAPLE FAMILY 



S/cu/it/is. — Seven to eight inserted on the disk, hairy ; filaments 

 long in the sterile flowers, short in the fertile ones. Anthers introrse, 

 two celled ; cells opening longitudinally. 



J'istil. — 0\ ary superior, hairy, two-celled, compressed contrary to 

 the dissepiments, wing-margijied ; style of two long, exserted, stig- 

 niatic lobes, united at base only ; o\ ules two in each cell, one of 

 which aborts. 



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



clusters on long pendulous footstalks. Wings vary from one-halt 



to one inch long, brown, thin, divergent. One capsule of the key is 



' usually empty. Seeds reddish brown. September. Cotyledons 



thick, leaf-like. 



South .America possesses the Milk Tree, India the Bread Tree, but it is 

 reserved .ns a Si.trl of climatic para(.kix for our temperate north to furnibli tlie 

 very to["i ol luxur\- in the shape of the Sugar Tree. .-\ man who could persuade 

 these tiiree staple producers to grow on his plantation could henceforth live 

 independent of the milkman, the baker, and the grocer. It would be easy work 

 to gather the yield of the two tropical trees, but the sweet of the maple would 

 still ha\e to be gained by the sweat of the brow. Besides its delicious sweet- 

 ness, there is a rich, almost oleaginous quality in maple syrup which suggests 

 what lite maple nut would have been if Nature had said, "' Consider the ways 

 of the hickor} , beech, and chestnut, how thrifty and hospitable I Their bounty 

 keeps m\biidsand my four-footed groundlings all winter through. Do thou 

 ripen a kernel of thine own more toothsome than theirs." What Nature did 

 sav was brietlv- and practicalh-, " Invest in sugar."" More cold, more sweet, 

 seems to be tl-,e law goxerning the saccharine supply, as though there were 

 warmth and food in the sugar principle, and as though it \vere excited bv keen 

 weather to greater acti\"it\- in order to meet the needs of the trt e. Ihe sap of 

 all \\ood in earlv spring is jTerceptibly sweet. If the discharge of sap Irom 

 other trees were as tree as from the maple it might be profitable to tap them 

 also, as the butternut, fir example. It is plain that Nature drops a little sugar 

 in the milk on which she rears her nursery. All \oung ones love sweets, even 

 to the baby leaves on the old trees, — EniTH Thom.^s. 



Unquestionably, the Sugar Maple ranks among the finest 

 of American forest trees. It is both useful and beautiful. 

 A\'hen voung its full leafy head is often a pure oval. In tlie 

 forest it frequently rises seventy feet witiiout a branch, and 

 spreads its leaves to the sunliglit one hundred and twenty 

 feet above its base. When growing in the open it some- 

 times develops into a great cylindrical column, sometimes its 

 head becomes a broad dome. The foliage is always dense. 

 Erect in youth and maturity, in old age its trunk is often 

 gnarled and disfigured. 



68 



