250 ACBRACBAB. 



L8 ft. high, tlif branches 1 angled; leaves thin, ovate or often broadest above 

 the middle and abruptly acuminate, serrulate, 1% to 4 in. long, on petioles 

 ."! lines long; peduncles 1 to 1 j j in. long, .'i to o-flowered ; flowers 4 or 5 lines 

 broad; ealyx-lobes broad and obtuse; petals roundish, brownish purple, finely 

 dotted and with scarious margins; capsule depressed, smooth, deeply 3-lobed, 

 often :: i in. broad. 



Near the coast: Santa Cruz Mts. to Marin and Humboldt cos. June. 



ACERACEAE. Maple Family. 



Deciduous trees or shrubs. Leaves opposite, petioled, simple or compound, 

 wit hunt stipules. Flowers regular, polygamous or dioecious, borne in axillary 

 or terminal racemes, corymbs or fascicles. Calyx 5 (or 4) -cleft. Petals 5 

 (or 4), or none. Stamens 3 to 10, borne on the edge of a disk or hypogynous. 

 Ovary superior. - -celled, 2-lobed, developing a long wing from the summit of 

 each lobe and thus ripening into a double samara. Styles 2. Samaras separ- 

 able at maturity, the wings serving to rotate them rapidly in the air and further 

 their horizontal flight. 



1. ACER L. Maple. 



Flowers small, the clusters always drooping. (Latin name of the Maple 

 tree.) 



Flowers polygamous, the perfect and staminate mixed in the same raceme or the lower 

 half of the raceme staminate; petals present; leaves simple 1. A. macrophyllum'. 



Flowers dioecious, the staminate clustered, the pistillate in racemes; petals mine; leaves 

 compound 2. A. negundo. 



1. A. macrophyllum Pursh. Big-leaf Maple. Tree 20 to 80 ft. high; juice 

 in young herbage milky ; leaves simple, roundish in outline, 4 to 12 in. broad, 

 palmately parted into 5 broad mostly 3-lobed or toothed divisions; petioles 2 

 to 10 in. long; racemes 2 to 5 in. long; flowers greenish or dull white; sepals 

 elliptic, 2% lines long, equaled by the oblong petals; stamens 7 to !>. exceeding 

 the sepals in the staminate flower; filaments villous below ; body of samaras 

 densely hispid, the wings 1 to l 1 /^ in. long and 6 to 8 lines wide. 



Banks of streams and in the mountains, mostly on north and east slopes or 

 in deep caiions: Sierra Nevada; Coast Ranges northward to southeastern 

 Alaska. Mar. Also called Oregon Maple, California Maple, Water Maple and 

 White Maple. 



Two other species with simple leaves occur in the State. They are shrubs or 

 small trees with flowers in corymbs and samaras glabrous: A. glabrum Torr. 

 Sierra Maple. Leaves mostly 3-lobed or -parted; filaments glabrous. — High 

 Sierra Nevada. A. ciecinatum Pursh. Vine Maple. Leaves Bhallowly but 

 acutely 7 to 9-lobed; filaments hairy. — Humboldt Co. northward to Washington. 



1. A. negundo L. var. californicum Sarg. Box Ki.im.i;. Tree 20 to 60 

 ft. high; leaves pinnately 3-foliolate, the leaflets 1*4 to 5 in. long, serrate ami 

 incised, "i- deeply 2 or 3-lobed, or the lobes sometimes becoming distinct and 

 petioled bo that one or more of the primary Leaflets is replaced by 2 or 3; 

 Btaminate flowers clustered en thread-like hairy pedicels, the stamens 4 or 5; 

 pistillate (lowers borne in slender racemes ; samaras st raw \\ hit e, crimson when 

 young, finely pubescent, the wings 6 to 8 lines long, 4 lines wide. 



Along Btreams and In low moist valley bottoms: I'kiah. Napa and Sacra- 



mento valleys to Southern California; Sierra Nevada foothills. Not reported 



from the inner Coast Range. Some fine trees along Olema Creek. Mar. -Apr. 



