MAPLE FAMILY 



S/d>/ii:/!s. — Three to se\'en, hypogynous ; filaments long and slen 

 der in the sterile tlowers, short m the fertile. Anthers reddish, ob- 

 long. two-colleJ ; cells opening longitudinally. 



J'lStHs. — In sterile flowers rudimentary ; in fertile, ovary borne on 

 narrow disk, superior, downy, two-lobed, two-celled, compressed 

 contrary to the dissepiment, « ing-margined ; styles two, united at 

 base only, long, exserted, red ; o\ ules two in each cell, one usually 

 aborts. 



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

 slender drooping pedicels an inch and a half to three inches long. 

 Vary in length from one and one-half to three inches. Wings di- 

 vergent, straight or curved, three-fourths of an inch broad, deep 



St.Tminate .tnd Pistill.ite Flowers of Silver .Maple. -Ac^r ^accharinum. 



red or pale chestnut brown. Seed reddish brown. April, May. 

 Cotyledons thin, leaf-like. Seed germinates as soon as it falls to 



the ground. 



The seed of Ac€r usually ripens in the autumn and germinates the fol- 

 lowing spring. The seed of the two American species with precocious Howers, 

 A. riibruni and A. Sad /Liruium. howe\er, ripens at the end of a few weeks after 

 the trees flnwer, and germinate? at once. This is a provisicm. perhaps, acquired 

 by these species to insure their perpetuation ; the\- griiw in Ktw, wet land, often 

 inundated during the winter, and the seed, if it ripened in the autumn would 

 often lie in the water through the winter and be in danger of losing its vitalit)- ; 

 but it reaches the ground after the water has fallen in the swamps and before 

 the exposed surface of the ground has become baked by the hot sun of summer, 

 that is, when it is just in the condition to insure the germination of seed, 



— Ch.\rles S, S,-\rgent. 



74 



