SILVER MAPLE 
remain comparatively untouched, although the willows are 
green and the apple trees like summer; the sword has fallen 
and the end has come. Only the rear guard will linger 
along the line, beautiful in their isolation, pathetic in their 
loneliness. 
SILVER MAPLE. SOFT MAPLE. WHITE MAPLE. 
Acer saccharinum. Acer dasycdrpum. 
A large tree, ninety to one hundred feet in height with a trunk 
which soon divides into three or four stout, upright, secondary stems, 
forming a wide spreading head with drooping branches. Found 
abundantly throughout the valley of the Mississippi where it is one of 
the largest and most common of river trees; rare along the Atlantic 
coast. Grows rapidly. Sap produces sugar. 
Bark.—Light gray, smooth until the tree is of considerable size. 
On old trees reddish brown, more or less furrowed, the surface sep- 
arating into large loose scales. Branchlets at first pale green, later 
dark green, finally pale chestnut brown, smooth, shining, at last 
reddish gray. 
Wood.—Cream, faintly tinged with brown; hard, strong, close- 
grained, rather brittle. Used in cabinet work. Sp. gr., 0.5269; 
weight of cu. ft., 32.84. 
Winter Buds.—¥ lower buds aggregated, obtuse, red. Leaf buds 
one-fourth an inch long, red; inner scales enlarge when spring 
growth begins, become green or yellow and an inch long before they 
fall. 
Leaves.—Opposite, simple, five to seven inches long, rather less 
in breadth. Palmately five-lobed with narrow acute sinuses and 
acute divisions. The middle lobe is often three-lobed. Base heart- 
shaped or truncate; margin coarsely serrate or toothed. Primary 
veins conspicuous. They come out of the bud pale green and 
downy, when full grown are bright pale green above, silvery white 
beneath. In autumn they turn pale yellow. Petioles long, slender, 
red, drooping. 
Flowers. — March, April. Polygamo-moneecious or dicecious. 
Before the leaves, which do not appear until fruit is nearly grown. 
Greenish yellow, sessile on last year’s wood ; borne in sessile axillary 
fasicles. 
Calyx.—Campanulate, slightly five-lobed, downy, long and nar 
row in the sterile, short and broad in the fertile flowers. 
Corolla.—Wanting. 
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