80 
THE MAPLE. 
The under side of the leaves in autumn, when they 
become yellow, and dashed here and there with a few 
specks of red and brown, appear, when magnified, like 
a very beautiful and perfect mosaic pavement, with all 
its tesserae arranged and fitted. If one of these rugged 
young shoots be cut through horizontally with a sharp 
knife, its cork-like bark presents the figure of a star 
with five or more rays, sometimes irregularly, but gene- 
rally exactly defined. A thin slice from the surface is a 
beautiful and curious object in the microscope, exhibit- 
ing the different channels, and variously formed tubes, 
through which the sap flows, and the air circulates for 
the supply of all the diversified requirements of the 
plant ; and it is good and delightful to contemplate the 
wonderful mechanism that has been devised by the 
Almighty Architect, for the sustenance and particular 
necessities of the simple maple, this “ ditch trumpery,” 
as Gilpin calls it ; which naturally leads one to consider 
that, if he have so regarded such humble objects, how 
much more has he accounted worthy of his beneficence 
the more highly destined orders of his creation ! As 
Evelyn says, on another occasion, “ I beg no pardon 
for this application, but deplore my no better use of 
it.” Modern practice records no medicinal virtues to 
be derived from the maple ; but Pliny, in the quaint 
language of old Philemon Holland, tells us that a cata- 
plasm made from the roots of this tree is “ singular to 
be applied for the griefs of the liver, and worketh 
mightily.” In summer the leaves of the hedge-row 
maple often assume a whitish, mouldy look, which ap- 
pears to be a mere exudation, as it neither presents any 
after-character, nor have I observed that any thing 
results from it. The young leaves, soon after their ap- 
pearance in the spring, are beset with numerous fine 
spines of a bright red color, most probably occasioned 
by the puncture of some insect, though I have never 
been able to discover any of the larvse inclosed in them. 
Some insects wound the leaves and sprays of plants for 
nutriment, though generally the object seems to be the 
formation of a nidus for their young, by the fluid that 
issues from the wound : but insects do something more 
