ROUND LEAVED MAPLE. 
81 
wholly to obstruct the progress of the hunter through the 
forest, the dense shade it also produces excludes nearly 
every other vegetable, and its curved and interlaced trunks, 
like those of the Mangrove, form a kindred forest some- 
times of several acres in extent. It is this singular tree, 
chiefly in connection with the Large Leaved Maple, which 
on descending the Oregon, at the Lower Falls, first pre- 
sents us with the phenomena of a forest, and that too of 
the most impervious shade, and which in low situations, 
continues to accompany us even into the heart of the Pine 
forest, to the shores of the Pacific. 
According to Douglas, the wood is fine, white, close- 
grained, tough, and susceptible of a good polish, and like 
that of the Red Maple, it sometimes presents a beautiful 
curled fibre. From the slender branches, the aborigines 
make the hoops of their large scoop-nets employed in taking 
the salmon at the rapids, and in the contracted parts of 
the river to which they ascend. 
The leaves of this species are of a delicate and thin con- 
sistence, and from their nearly equal and numerous points, 
with the straight direction of the ribs, present the appear- 
ance of small outspread fans. At the extremities of the 
twigs, when the leaves are almost fully grown, in the 
month of May, come out the scattered clusters of flowers, 
which at a little distance appear red from the colour of the 
calyx. The fruit itself, or winged capsules, also appear of 
a bright and lively red, and have a peculiarity in the direc- 
tion of the wings, nearly at right angles with the peduncle 
or flower stalk, which does not exist in any other of our 
species. 
Judging merely from the very brief specific character of 
the Acer Septemlobum of Japan, as described by Thunberg, 
we should imagine there existed in that species no inconsi- 
derable affinity with our plant. 
11 
