146 
THE 
CANADIAN 
NATURALIST. 
I have not observed the progress of the maple in vegetation : 
here are some by the road-side ; let us examine them. 
C. — The terminal and lateral buds are both opened ; 
the former seem to have been expanded some days. 
F, — I supposed they were ; the maple usually leafs at 
about the same time as the birch. 
C — How many kinds of maple are native ? 
F, — I believe some five or six species ; but the Rock 
Maple ( Acer Saccharinum ) and the Soft Maple ( A, Ru- 
briim) are the best known^ and the only ones that are of 
any note as trees. The Eock^ or Sugar Maple is the most 
noble of our native trees : it grows to a great height^ and is 
crowned with a dense mass of foliage at the summit ; the 
trunk is generally straight^ though often studded with pro- 
jections and excrescences. When it grows in a clearing, 
with room for it to spread on every side, and when all its 
branches are exposed to the light, it is a tree of great beauty. 
It somewhat resembles the English oak^ in its outline., its 
trunk, the form of its branches, and the massy character of 
its foliage — trees with broad sinuated leaves having this 
character in a higher degree than those whose leaves are more 
regular in their shape. Their colour is a fine green, changing 
in autumn to bright scarlet or deep crimson. 
C. — We have seen its utility in producing sugar ; has 
it any other use ? 
F, — I have already mentioned it as affording firewood of 
the best quality ; and though as a sugar tree it is so valuable 
when growing together, yet as it is found scattered through 
all our upland woods, and as it is so very abundant, the 
greater part of our winter fuel is composed of this wood. 
Besides this, sound and healthy trees are often sawed into 
plank, which is used for many purposes. When a tree of 
this kind, or birch, or elm is found, which has a sudden curve 
or bend in the trunks it is sawed into plank for the runners 
