MAPLE FAMILY 
Stamens.—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. 
Pistil.—Ovary superior, hairy, two-celled, compressed contrary to 
the dissepiments, wing-margined ; style of two long, exserted, stig- 
matic lobes, united at base only ; ovules two in each cell, one of 
which aborts, 
Fruit.ircTwo samaras united forming a maple key. Borne in 
clusters on long pendulous footstalks. Wings vary from one-half 
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 as a sort of climatic paradox for our temperate north to furnish the 
very top of luxury in the shape of the Sugar Tree. A man who could persuade 
these three 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 have 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 the maple nut would have been if Nature had said, ‘‘ Consider the ways 
of the hickory, beech, and chestnut, how thrifty and hospitable! Their bounty 
-keeps my birds and my four-footed groundlings all winter through. Do thou 
ripen a kernel of thine own more toothsome than theirs."" What Nature did 
say was briefly and practically, ‘‘ Invest in sugar.’’ More cold, more sweet, 
seems to be the law governing the saccharine supply, as though there were 
warmth and food in the sugar principle, and as though it were excited by keen 
weather to greater activity in order to meet the needs of the tree. The sap of 
all wood in early spring is perceptibly sweet. If the discharge of sap from 
other trees were as free as from the maple it might be profitable to tap them 
also, as the butternut, for example. It is plain that Nature drops a little sugar 
in the milk on which she rears her nursery. All young ones love sweets, even 
to the baby leaves on the old trees. —EpiItH THoMmas. 
Unquestionably, the Sugar Maple ranks among the finest 
of American forest trees. It is both useful and beautiful. 
When young its full leafy head is often a pure oval. In the 
forest it frequently rises seventy feet without a branch, and 
spreads its leaves to the sunlight one hundred and twenty 
feet above its base. When growing in the open it some 
times develops into a great cylindrical column, sometimes it¢ 
head becomes a broad dome. The foliage is always dense. 
Erect in youth and maturity, in old age its trunk is ofter 
gnarled and disfigured. 
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