MAPLE FAMILY 
This is our only maple with compound leaves, and so ac- 
customed are we to simple leaves for the maples that were 
Keys of Box Elder, Acer negundo. 
it not for the keys hanging 
in graceful clusters from the 
branches we should question 
its right to be a maple. But 
just as certainly as an acorn in- 
dicates an oak, so does a maple 
key characterize a maple. 
‘The Ash-leaved Maple is a 
handsome tree with spreading 
branches. Its habitat extends 
as far east as Cayuga Lake, 
New York, west to the foot- 
hills of the Rockies, north to 
Winnepeg and south to Flor- 
ida. Compared with its com- 
panions on the river bottoms 
it is a small tree, and like the 
sugar maple it can flourish in 
the shade. ‘The tree is rare 
east of the Appalachian range 
and beyond the Rockies it 
undergoes a mountain change 
and appears in California as 
a different variety. It grows 
rapidly and is now largely 
planted in the treeless west, 
and, strange to say, this lover 
of water accepts the climatic 
change and flourishes. Like the silver maple there is no 
touch of red in its autumnal coloring, its leaves become a 
pure pale yellow before they fall. 
BE 
