108 
BLACK SUGAR TREE. 
PLATE XLII. 
^ branch with leaves and seeds of the natural size. Fig. 1, A small twig 
with flowers. 
[For later and distinct remarks on the product of this tree, see Emer- 
son’s Trees and Shrubs of Massachusetts, p. 489. Count Wingersky is 
said to have planted a great many of these trees on his estates in Moravia, 
and to have made very good sugar from their sap when they had attained 
the age of 25 years. But in consequence of drawing sap every year, the 
trees became sickly, and soon died.] 
BLACK SUGAR TREE. 
Acer nigrum. A. foliis quinque.partito-palm.atis, sinuhus apertis, margine 
integra, subtus pubescentibus, atroviridibus : Jloribus corymbosis : capsulis 
turgide subglobosis. 
In the Western States, and in the parts of Pennsylvania and Virginia 
which lie between the Mountains and the Ohio, this species of Maple is 
designated by the name of Sugar Tree, and frequently by the more cha- 
racteristic denomination of Black Sugar Tree ; probably on account of the 
dark color of its leaves, in comparison with those of the true Sugar Maple, 
which sometimes grows with it. In the extensive country of Genesee, 
both species are indiscriminately called Rock Maple and Sugar Maple. 
This confusion seems to have arisen from the country’s being settled prin- 
cipally by emigrants from the Eastern States, who finding the Black Sugar 
Tree applicable to the same uses with the other, and equally productive of 
sugar, have given it the same name. The two species have also been con- 
founded by Botanists, in describing the vegetable productions of America. 
Toward the north, I first observed the Black Sugar Tree, near Windsor 
in Vermont, on the Connecticut river. But from its inferior size, and its 
scarceness, it may be inferred that it belongs to a more southern climate. 
Accordingly, a few degrees lower, it forms a large part of the forests of 
Genesee, and covers the immense valleys through which flow the gi’eat rivers 
