XI. ACERA'CEE !' ACER. 85 
leaves. About the end of October, the leaves become either of a clear, or a yel- 
lowish, red, and then drop off. The flowers appear just before the leaves, near 
the end of April: they form a short raceme, somewhat corymbose. The fruits, 
or keys, have their wings yellow. It is not till the tree has attained the age 
of nearly 40 years that it produces fertile seeds, though it will flower many 
years before that period. The rate of growth of this species, when once es- 
tablished, is from 18 in. to 3 ft. long every year, till it attains the height of 20 
or 30 feet ; which, in favourable situations, it does in ten years. The wood 
weighs, when dry, 43 lb. 4.02. per cubic foot ; is easily worked, takes a fine 
polish, and absorbs and retains all kinds of colours. It may be used for all 
the various purposes of the wood of the common sycamore. Sugar is made 
from thesap in Norway, Sweden, and Lithuania. Seeds are ripened in England 
in abundance. 
¥ 7. A. saccua’‘Rinum L. The Sugar Maple. 
ddeateation: Lin. Sp., 1496.; Dec. Prod., 1. p. 595.; Don’s Mill., 1. p.650.; Tor. and Gray, 1. 
Be ee Rock Maple, Hard Maple, Bird’s-eye Maple, Amer.; Acero del Canada, Ital. 
Engravings. Michx. Fl. Arb, 2. t.15.; the plate of this species in Arb. Brit., ist edit., vol. v. ; our 
Jig. 130. ; and jig. 152. of the leaves, of the natural size, in the plate forming p. 108, 109. 
S. ec. Char, §&c. Leaves cordate, smooth, glaucous beneath, palmately 
5-lobed ; lobes acuminated, serrately toothed. Corymbs drooping, on short 
peduncles. Pedicels pilose. Fruit smooth, with the wings diverging. (Don’s 
Mill.) A deciduous tree. Canada to Georgia. Height in America 50 ft. 
to 80ft.; in England 30ft. to 40ft. Introduced in 1735. Flowers 
small, yellowish, and suspended on long, slender, drooping peduncles ; 
April and May. Keys brown ; ripe in September. Decaying leaves rich 
yellow. Naked young wood smooth, whitish brown. 
150. A‘cer sacch4rinum. 
Variety. 
ae $s. 2. nigrum. A. s. Bnigrum Tor. §& Gray; A. nigrum Miche ; 
the black Sugar Tree, or Rock Maple, Michv. Arb. 2. t. 16 — 
* Leaves pale green beneath, the veins of the lower surface and petioles 
minutely villous, pubescent ; wings of the fruit a little more diverg- 
ing. (Tor. and Gray, i. p.248.) Michaux, who considered this 
variety a species, says the leaves resemble those of the species in 
every respect, except that they are of a darker green, and of a thicker 
texture, and somewhat more bluntly lobed. The tree is indiscri- 
minately mixed with the common sugar maple, through extensive 
ranges of country in New Hampshire, Vermont, and Connecticut 3 
but is readily distinguished from it by the smaller size which it at- 
tains, and the darker colour of its leaves. The soil in which it 
flourishes best is a rich, strong, sandy loam ; and there it usually 
grows to the height of 40 or 50 feet. 
Closely resembling A. platandides in foliage, except in being somewhat 
G3 
