346 
DECIDUOUS TREES. 
feet in height and breadth. The character of its foliage is midway 
between that of the sugar maple and the silver maple, but its growth 
is not more rapid than the former. In cool moist soils it should be 
preferred to the sugar maple. Meehan remarks that though “ found 
in swamps and morasses, it will thrive in any soil or situation.” 
We have observed that its foliage acquires a depth of green, and a 
glossiness in very rich warm soils that give it quite a different ex- 
pression from its ordinary appearance when growing wild. 
There is a variety advertised in some nurseries as the Acer 
colchicum rubriim^ said to be marked by the unusually deep purplish 
red color of its young foliage. 
The Moosewood or Striped-barked Maple. Acer striatum . — 
This is a very peculiar small native tree, found principally in the 
sheltered valleys of northern mountains, in shady places, where it 
grows sometimes singly, but oftener in groups or stools composed 
of many strong thrifty sprouts, which, from their straightness and 
lightness, are used for impromptu fishing rods. The bark is very 
smooth, and of a dark-green color, marked with stripes lighter and 
darker than the general color, on wood several years old, and of a 
warm yellowish or reddish-green hue on the fresh growth. Its 
leaves are quite peculiar in form, light-green, without any gloss on 
the upper surface, and of a grayish-green with strongly marked ribs 
on the under surface, and very finely serrated. The buds and 
leaves when beginning to unfold are rose-colored, and “ it is one of 
the first trees to announce the spring.” It attains a height of 
twenty to thirty feet, and forms an umbrella-shaped top of slow 
growth after the first half dozen years. The seeds are grouped in 
pairs on long peduncles, and in August when ripe are of a dull 
rose-color, very abundant, showy, and beautiful. We have nowhere 
seen it so abundant as on Mount Desert Island, in Maine, where, 
in sheltered valleys between abrupt granite hills, it forms a part 
of every copse-wood. We believe it will be found a tree of such 
peculiar habit as to be interesting among other maples, and worth 
much more attention than it has received from planters. Its small 
size at maturity, and quick growth in its earlier years, recommend 
it to persons forming a collection of maples for a small place. 
