484 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
with brown, and changing gradually into the beautiful clear 
ashy gray of the trunk. In old trees, the bark cracks and may 
be easily peeled off in long, slender flakes. The gray, uniform 
color of the bark is often varied with patches of white lichens, 
and not uncommonly covered entirely with those of various 
shades of gray or white, finely dotted with their black or brown 
fructification. The leaves, which are plaited in the bud, where 
they are protected by 4 pairs of leaf-buds, are on long, round 
petioles, which are usually reddish, and toward autumn of a 
bright scarlet. They are commonly of 3 or 5 lobes, the notches 
between the lobes always sharp. They are usually heart- 
shaped, but sometimes straight or rounded at base. ‘They vary 
exceedingly in size and shape, being soinetimes very broad, 
with 5 palmately divergent lobes, sometimes long and narrow, 
the lower lobes reduced to mere serratures, and the middle ones 
prolonged and nearly parallel to the terminal one; the mar- 
gin slightly and irregularly toothed, or deeply cut into long, 
slender serratures. ‘The surface is liable to be variegated with 
lines of scarlet or to become entirely scarlet, or crimson, or 
orange, at every season of the year. ‘This occasionally happens 
to all the leaves on a tree, even in the middle of summer, form- 
ing a gorgeous contrast with the green of the rest of the forest. 
The differences in the leaves are accompanied by corresponding 
differences in the branches and general appearance of the tree; 
and the common opinion is, that there are sevoral distinct vari- 
eties of this tree. The leaves begin to change their color in Au- 
sust, and are usually gone by the first of November. 
The observation, for a single year, of the varying colors of 
the Red Maple, would be sufficient to disprove the common 
theory that the colors of the leaves in autumn are dependent 
on the frosts. It is not an uncommon thing to see a single tree 
in a forest of maples turning to a crimson or scarlet, in July or 
August, while all the other trees remain green. A single bril- 
liantly colored branch shows itself on a verdant tree; or a few 
scattered leaves exhibit the tints of October, while all the rest 
of the tree and wood have the soft greens of June. The sting 
of an insect, the gnawing of a worm at the pith, or the presence 
of minute, parasitic plants, often gives the premature colors of 
