94 



rEACTICAL FOKESTEY. 



this tree sufficiently distinct to be separated from the true 

 maples, it is however so closely allied to them, that for conveni- 

 ence's sake I have named it here. Negiindo aceroides is the gen- 

 eric name most generally employed in botanical works of the 

 present day. The pistillate and staminate flowers are produced 

 on different trees ; consequently, in order to raise fertile seeds, 

 both sexes must be present, or the trees not far distant. Leaves, 

 pinnately three to five-foliate, the leaflets ovate or oblong, either 

 lobed or toothed. Flowers small ; greenish ; the fertile ones in 

 racemes from lateral buds, and appearing with or before the 

 leaves. The seeds are oblong, extending about half the length 

 of the wing, ripening in late summer or autumn. Wood mod- 

 erately fine, white, and makes good fuel when well seasoned. 



tree thirty to sixty feet high and two feet or more in diameter. 

 A widely-distributed species, being found in Vermont, and 

 westward to Utah, and southward in the canyons of New Mexico 

 and Arizona ; also in Florida and Texas. A very hardy tree, and 

 has been planted quite extensively in Minnesota, and the colder 

 region of the Northwest. It is a very rapid grower while young, 

 but does not continue and become so large a tree as some other 

 species of Maple already named. The California Box Elder 

 {Negundo Calif or nicum) resembles the Eastern species very 

 closely, and was previously considered to be identical, but may 

 be distinguished by its smaller and narrower leaflets, which are 

 coarsely toothed, but less distinctly lobed. 



There is a species of the Negundo indigenous to Mexico and 

 another to Japan, making ^f our known to botanists. Varieties 

 occur among them all, but tliose in cultivation in this country 

 are of our native species. One of the most showy of these is 

 the Variegated Negundo, the leaves being distinctly marked 

 with white, but the tree is rather delicate and often kills down 

 in winter, still an occasional specimen T\'ill escape injury for 

 many years. There is one specimen at Rye, Westchester, 

 County, N. Y., now over twenty years old, that has never been 

 injured by the cold of winter or burning sun of summer. 



The Crisp-leaved Negundo is another distinct and interesting 

 cut-leaved variety, and another known as Violacea, so named 

 on account of the peculiar color of the bark on the young 

 branches. This last is a very vigorous-growing tree, and the 

 young shoots rather larger than those of the species. A pistil- 

 late tree of this variety, twenty years old, in my grounds fruits 

 heavily every year, but there being no staminate tree of either 



