XXXII. THE ROCK MAPLE. 491 
The sterile flowers are yellowish-green, on an undeveloped 
branch with a pair of leaves at its base, and proceed from a 
long, large bud, whose oblong scales are purplish, one inch 
Jong and fringed with hairs. The flowers are pendulous, on 
thread-like, hairy pedicels, one or two inches long. The calyx 
is hairy on the edge within; petals are wanting; the stamens 
are about 8 or 10, twice as long as the calyx. In the fertile 
flowers, the stamens, about 8, are on short filaments, and the 
anthers are within the calyx. The stigmas are long, the ovary 
is conical and hairy. The fruit is borne on long, pendulous 
footstalks, which are either simple, or compound with several 
pairs of opposite branches. It is larger and fuller than that of 
the red maple, but not so thick as that of the river maple. 
The Rock Maple is found from 48° north, in Canada, to the 
mountains of Georgia, and from Nova Scotia to Arkansas and 
the Rocky Mountains. It is most abundant in the New Eng- 
land States and the country immediately north and south of 
them. It occurs sparingly in the eastern counties of Massachu- 
setts, but abundantly in the middle and western parts, partic- 
ularly on the moist sides of the mountains and in the little 
valleys amongst them. 
For the purposes of art, no native wood possesses more beauty 
or a greater variety of appearance than that of the Rock Maple. 
It is hard, close-grained, smooth and compact, and capable of 
taking and retaining an exquisite polish. The straight-grained 
or common variety has a resemblance to satin-wood, but is of a 
deeper color. The variety called Curled Hard Maple, which 
is caused by the sinuous course of the fibres, gives a change- 
able surface of alternate light and shade, exhibiting an agree- 
able and striking play of colors. But the most remarkable 
variety is the Bird’s Eye Maple. This is so called from a 
contortion of the fibres at irregular intervals, throwing out a 
variable point of light and giving an appearance of a roundish 
projection, rising from within a slight cavity, and having a dis- 
tant resemblance to the eye of a bird. All the varieties, par- 
ticularly the last, are used in the manufacture of articles of 
furniture, ward-robes, chairs, bedsteads, bureaus, portable desks, 
frames of pictures, &c. The straight-grained variety is much 
