(8o) 



to the north of the sumac, family, are the maple and buckeye 

 families. The maples (Acer) are represented by a number 

 of species. Perhaps the most important of these is the sugar, 

 or rock, maple, a native of eastern North America, and the 

 principal tree yielding maple sugar and syrup. The sap is 

 usually collected from late in February to early in April ; 

 trees from twenty to thirty years old are considered the most 

 productive, and a tree will usually yield in a season from 

 four to six pounds of sugar, some giving less and others 

 much more. This tree is often planted for shade along 

 streets and in parks, its beautiful coloring in the fall en- 

 hancing its value for this purpose. Its wood is largely used 

 for making furniture, in ship-building, for tool-handles, and 

 for shoe-lasts and pegs. Another tree here is the red maple, 

 ranging throughout eastern North America ; its wood is now 

 used in large quantities for the manufacture of furniture of 

 various kinds, for gun-stocks, etc. The striped, or goose- 

 foot, maple, sometimes known also as moosewood, of north- 

 eastern North America, is a pretty decorative species, espe- 

 cially attractive on account of the beautiful marking of its 

 bark. Two Old World representatives are the common 

 European maple, of Europe and western Asia, and the syca- 

 more maple, from Europe and the Orient. The sycamore 

 maple is a valuable timber tree in Europe ; its wood is used 

 in the manufacture of musical instruments, spoons and other 

 household utensils. From the southeastern United States 

 comes the white-barked maple, also in the collection. The 

 ash-leaved maple, or box elder, of eastern North America, 

 is represented by several specimens. 



In the buckeye family is the common horse-chestnut (Aes- 

 culus) ; for a long time the native country of this tree was 

 unknown, and its home was ascribed by different authors to 

 various lands ; it has been pretty well established now that it 

 is indigenous to the mountains of Greece. Another tree here 

 is the fetid, or Ohio, buckeye, of the central United States ; 

 its wood, as well as that of some of the other kinds of buck- 

 eye, is manufactured into artificial limbs, for which purpose 



