HARD MAPLE 



brown line of Autumn wood scarcely wider than a ray, visible 

 with lens : contour well rounded, otherwise little contrast 

 between the Spring and Autumn zones. 



Soft-tissue. Not readily distinguishable from the ground, 

 the whole rather wide-meshed and spongy. 



Flecks. ? Possibly the green stripes above referred to are of 

 this nature. 



Pith. Some mm. thick : round : reddish or yellowish- 

 white : "of two kinds of brownish, thick- walled cells " (86). 



Radial Section. The pores are difficult to see even with lens. 

 The rays are small lines or flakes, which are readily visible by 

 means of their lustre, not by their colour. The ring-boundaries 

 appear as faint, thin brown lines. 



Tangential Section. As the radial, but the rays appear as 

 fine, colourless lines about "5 to ro mm. high (need micro.). 



Type specimens are from trees which were known when in leaf i 



No. 47. HARD MAPLE. Acer saccharinum. Wang. 

 (Not Linn, nor Michx.) 

 Plate IV. Fig. 34. 



Natural Order. Sapindaceae. 



Synonyms. A. barbatum, Michx. A. nigrum, Michx. A. 

 palmifolium, Borck. 



Note. — The A. saccharinum, Michx., is the var. nigrum of 

 this species, of Torr. et Gray. The A. saccharinum, Linn., is A. 

 dasycarpum, Ehrh. 



Alternative Names. Sugar Maple, Rock Maple, Sugar Tree 

 (49), Bird's-eye Maple. 



Sources of Supply. Canada, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, 

 Newfoundland and the United States. 



Physical Characters, etc. Recorded dry-weight 33 (?)-54 lbs. 

 per cu. ft. Hardness Grade 4, compare Sycamore, Hornbeam. 

 Smell none. Taste, if any, like Deal. Burns well and quietly 

 with a lively flame, embers glow in still air. Solution with 

 water or alcohol colourless. 



Grain. Fine, smooth, even, dense. Surface in radial section 

 brilliantly lustrous, less so in other sections : the pores and rays 

 being dull. 



Bark. Sometimes as much as i£ inches in thickness : of two 

 layers, the outer deeply fissured, soft and corky, "scaling at 

 length." The scales may be seen distinctly marked off in trans- 

 verse section. These areas are not present in the inner layer, 

 which is about J inch thick, Woody and exhibits the continua- 

 tions of the rays. 



Uses, etc. "Furniture, shoe-lasts, keels, keelsons, flooring, 



55 



