MAPLE FAMILY 



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

 drooping stems tliree to four inches long ; scarlet, dark red, some- 

 times broun ; wings thin, convergent at first, divergent when full 

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

 i\Ia\-, June. Seed dark red, germinates immediately after falling to 

 the ground. Cotyledons thin. 



The scarlet maple-keys betray, 

 \\'hat potent blood hatli modest May. 



— Ralph \V.\ldo Emerson. 



The maple crimsons to a coral reef. 



— jAMts Russell Lowell. 



A small Red Maple has gro\\-n, percllance. far a\\'a\" at the head of some retired 

 valley, a mile t'rom an\" road, unobserved. It has faithtully discharged all the 

 duties of a maple there, all winter and summer neglected none of its economies, 

 but added to its stature in the \irtue Avhich belongs to a maf'le, by a steady 

 growth for so lnan_\" months, and is nearer heaven than it was in tlie spring. It 

 has faitlifuUy husbanded its sap, and afforded a shelter to the wandering bird, 

 has long since ripened its seeds and committed them to the ^\ intis. It deserves 

 \\"ell of mapledom. Its leaves ha\'e been asking it frcim time to time in a whis- 

 per, " A\'hen shall we redden ? " and now in this month of .September, this montli 

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

 lakes, this modest maple, still without budging an inch, tra\els in its reputa- 

 tion — runs up its scarlet-flag r.n that hillside, which allows that it has finished its 

 summers work belc're all other trees, and withdrawn from the contest. .\t the 

 eleventh hour of the year, the tree which no scnitinv cimld have detected here 

 when it was most nidustriuus is thus, by the tint of its matnritv, bv its very 

 blushes, revealed at last to llie careless and distant traxeller. and leads his 

 thoughts away from the dusty road into those lira\e solitutlcs which it inhabits ; it 

 flashes out conspicuous with all the virtue and beauty of a maple— .-/or yuhriim. 

 ^\'e may now read its title, or rubric, clear. Its \irtues not its sins are as scarlet. 



— Henry D. Thoreau. 



Never was a tree more appropriately named than the Red 

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

 keys ripen scarlet in early May, all summer long- its leaves 

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

 the same colors and latei", amid all the brilliancy of the au- 

 tnmnal forest, it stands ]ire-emiiient and unapproachable. 



1 he Reil Maple shows a decided tendencv to vary in the 

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

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

 ters do not remain constant. Of two red maples standing 



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