XX XIII. THE ROCK MAPLE. 489 
On the banks of the Nashua, in Lancaster, below the conflu- 
ence of the two streams, In a meadow pasture on the north 
side, are found some old River Maples,—one, which had been 
much injured by the ice, in the freshets of former years, mea- 
sured, in 1840, 12 feet 9 inches at the surface, 9 feet 6 inches 
at 3 feet, and 10 feet 4 inches at 6 feet from the ground,—a broad 
spreading tree. 
On the meadows at Northampton, near the road from the 
town leading to the ferry of Mt. Holyoke, one is found which 
in 1837 measured 124 feet at 34 feet from the ground. ‘This is 
a noble tree. 
An old gnarled tree in a pasture meadow north of Centre 
Bridge, Lancaster, measured, in 1840, 18 feet 5 inches at 1 foot 
from the ground, the bulging roots preventing my measuring it 
at the surface. At 3 feet it measured 16 feet 8 inches, at 6 feet 
13 feet 104 inches. It divides at a low point into several large 
branches, and rises to about 60 feet. An old tree on the Ather- 
ton road measured 15 feet 10 inches near the roots, and 12 feet 
4 inches at 3 feet above. 
A vigorous, round-headed tree near Rev. Louis Dwight’s barn 
in Stockbridge, measured, in 1843, 12 feet in girth at 3 feet from 
the ground. 
Sp.3. Tse Rock Marre. Sucar Maris. A. saccharinum. L. 
The leaves, flowers and fruit are well figured in Michaux, Sylva, I, Plate 42 ; 
a young tree, leaves, spray and flowers, in Loudon, Arboretum, V, Plate 37. 
The Rock Maple is easily distinguished from the other maples 
by the roundness of the notch between the lobes of the leaves, 
which, in those already described, is somewhat acute. ‘This 
tree, which is also called Hard Maple, from the character of its 
wood, and Sugar Maple, from the valuable product of its sap, 
is, in all respects, the most remarkable tree of the family. 
When young it is a beautiful, neat, and shapely tree, with a 
rich, full, leafy head, of a great variety of forms,—enlarging 
upwards and forming a broad mass above,—or tapering at each 
extremity and full in the middle, supported by an erect, smooth, 
agreeably clouded column, with a clean bark, and a cheerful 
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