CHAP. XXI r. 



^CERA CE^. A CER. 



425 



differing so very little from it as hardly to be worth cultivation as 

 distinct. The leaves of A. r. cocclneum are somewhat redder in 

 spring, when they expand, than those of A. riibruni. 

 Description. In America, the red-flowering maple, Michaux observes, is 

 the earliest tree, the bloom of which announces the return of spi-ing; it is in 

 flower, near New York, from the 10th to the 15th of April. The blossoms, which 

 are of a beautiful purplish or deep red, unfold more than a fortnight before 

 the leaves. They are aggregate, and situated at the extremity of the branches. 

 The fruit is suspended by long flexible peduncles, and is of the same hue with 

 the flowers ; though it varies in size and in the intensity of its colouring, 

 according to the exposure and dampness of the soil. The keys and the seeds 

 are one half smaller than those of A. eriocarpum, and they ripen sooner. The 

 leaves are also smaller than those of that species ; but, in most other respects, 

 they resemble them. They are glaucous and whitish underneath ; and are 

 palmated, or divided into 3 or 4 acuminate lobes, irregularly toothed. The 

 extremities of this tree, which are formed by numerous twigs united at the 

 base, have a remarkable appearance when garnished with flowers and seeds of 

 a deep red, before vegetation has begun generally to revive. Before the red- 

 flowering maple exceeds 25 ft. or .30 ft. in height, and 7 in. or 8 in. in diameter, 

 its bark is perfectly smooth, and marked with white blotches, by which it is 

 easily distinguished. Afterwards, the trunk, hke that of the white oak 

 (Quercus alba) and sw^eet gum (Liquidambar Styraciflua), becomes brown 

 and chapped. In this tree, as in others which grow in wet places, the sap- 

 wood bears a large proportion to the heart-wood, if, indeed, the name of heart- 

 wood can properly be given to the irregular column, star-like in its horizontal 

 section, which occupies the centre of large trunks, and which has points, from 

 1 in. to .3 in. in length, projecting into the sap-wood. (Mickaux, p. 218, 219.) 

 The wood weighs, when dry, 441b. per cubic foot. The tree only attains its 

 full size in rich soils. Somewhat large forests of it in America, when their 

 summits are covered with flowers, are said to present a very singular and 

 grand appearance. 



Geography/. In America, towards the north, the red-flowering maple appears 

 first, scantily, about Malebaye, in Canada, in 48° north latitude ; but, in pro- 

 ceeding southward, it soon becomes more common, and abounds in Florida 

 and Lower Louisiana. Of all the trees which flourish in grounds which are 

 occasionall}' overflowed, this species is most multiplied in the middle and 

 southern states. It occupies, in great part, the borders of the creeks, and 

 abounds in all the swamps, which are often inundated, and always miry. In 

 these situations it is accompanied by the black gum (Nyssa sylvatica), sweet 

 gum (Liquidambar Styraciflua), shellbark hickory (Carya squamosa), swamp 

 white oak (Quercus Prhius discolor), black ash (J'raxinus sambucifolia), 

 and white ash (i^raxinus quadrangulata). To these are added, in the Caro- 

 linas and Georgia, the small magnolia, or swamp bay (Magnoha glauca), the 

 water oak (Quercus aquatica), loblolly bay (Gordon?^ Lasianthus), tupelo 

 (Nyssa acjuatica), and the red bay (iaurus carolinensis). It is a remarkable 

 fact, that, west of the mountains, between Brownsville and Pittsburg, the red- 

 flowering maple is seen growing on elevated gj'ound, with the oaks and the wal- 

 nuts j but, in such situations, it does not attain such ample dimensions as in 

 Pennsylvania and New Jersey : in these states exist extensive marshes, called 

 maple swamps, exclusively covered with it ; where it is found 70 ft. high, and 

 3 ft. or 4 ft. in diameter. (Michaux, p. 217, 218.) Elliot observes that, in 

 " descending the mouths of our large rivers, the red maple is the last tree 

 found in the swamps, the tree diminishing in size as the soil becomes impreg- 

 nated with salt, until it dwindles down to a shrub, and, mingling with the can- 

 dleberry myrtle (ilfyrica cerifera) and J?accharis ^aliraifdha, it finally dis- 

 appears." (Hook, F/. Bor. Amer., i. p. 114.) 



Hidurif. This tree was cultivated by Mr. John Tradescant, jun., in 1656. 

 It was for a long time confounded with A. eriocarpum. It is described, in the 

 first edition of JDu Hamcl, as ^'cer floribus rubris ; and A. eriocarpum, as ^'cer 



