PARK AND CEMETERY 
and Landscape Gardening. 
VOL. XIII CHICAGO, JANUARY, 1904 No. 11 
Some Notes on the Maples of the Northern States. 
BY WILFRED A. BROTHER TON, MEMBER MICHIGAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 
Among the people of our Northern states maples, are 
universal favorites as shade trees, and yet scarcely one 
person in ten can distinguish the various species, a re- 
markable fact, as the various species differ so widely 
in appearance, ornamental and shade value, and in 
practical utility. About the only distinction an or- 
dinary individual can make in maples is to call some 
“hard maples” and some “soft maples.” 
HARD MAPLES ; SUGAR MAPLES. 
The black maple ( Acer nigrum ) is by far the best 
of all our native maples for shade and ornament, as 
a shade tree surpassing any foreign maple of my ac- 
quaintance, much superior to the Norway maple; and 
vet, strangely enough, this superb species is very 
little known, but very few nurserymen cataloging it. 
Even botanists have been troubled by it, confusing it 
with sugar maple ( Acer saccharum) , some calling it 
a variety of that species, etc. Future research will 
undoubtedly fully demonstrate not only that the 
black maple is a distinct species from sugar maple, 
but that in various portions of our country, as yet 
not fully investigated by botanists, several other spe- 
cies of maples occur, which some botanists today 
confuse with the sugar maple. The black maple is 
usually a smaller tree than the sugar maple, but still 
a large tree, the form of the tree very unlike that of 
the sugar maple, being ovate or oval in outline, the 
branches not widespread as in that species, but nearly 
all ascending at a sharp angle, the many branchlets 
forming a close, dense head ; bark nearly black. But 
the beauty of the tree is its splendid foliage, the 
leaves densely covering the tree, very large (com- 
monly five or six inches wide, often larger), thick, 
heavy, but soft and velvety, very dark rich green 
above, clear green and velvety below, five-lobed, re- 
markable for the very large basal lobes, which 
often cover the top of the velvety leaf stalk. A tree 
of this species in full perfection is a beautiful object, 
because of its elegant form and splendid dark green 
foliage. Where known at all it is preferred to all 
other maples as a shade tree, as the eye never tires 
of resting upon its superb, very dark green foliage. 
Produces sugar, but less than sugar maple. 
Bearded Maple ( Acer barbatum ) . — Although this 
species is found within fifty miles of my locality, I 
have not seen it. Leaves much smaller, three lobed, 
somewhat velvety beneath. Bark usually lighter col- 
ored. Sap said to be remarkably sweet, much richer 
in sugar than sugar maple. While in Wisconsin and 
the Lake Superior region in 1901 I found many ma- 
ples of this same group, plainly of some undescribed 
species, very unlike either the maples already noticed 
or the sugar maple. The leaves were smaller than 
black maple, but larger and broader than those of 
sugar maple, five-lobed, with lobes again divided, 
velvety only on the veins beneath. I suspect this 
tree is the main source of the bird’s-eye and “curly” 
maples of that region. The branches are more nearly 
horizontal, forming a rounder head than black maple, 
but a more dense one than sugar maple. Promises 
well for a shade tree. Valuable for timber and 
sugar. Tree very branching; branches wide spread- 
ing. 
The Sugar Maple (Acer sacchanmi)\s our best 
known maple, next to the white maple, our largest 
maple. Tree very coarsely branched, the branches 
coarse, very widespreading. Bark gray ; leaves much 
smaller than black maple, smooth both sides, paler 
beneath. Very well known. In forests grows very 
tall, but wider spread in the open. 
THE SOFT MAPLES. 
The silver maple or white maple, Acer saccharinum 
(wrongly A. dasycarpum ) when it attains its full size 
is by far our largest native maple, sometimes becoming 
five or six feet, possibly more, in diameter. Its shaggy 
bark, deeply cut leaves, so silvery white beneath and 
so conspicuous in every breeze, are very easily recog- 
nized. It is truly a noble and very beautiful tree, 
greatly contrasting with the black maple. It is by far 
our most rapidly growing maple, but unfortunately 
very liable to attacks of borers and is not very long- 
lived. It is not a shade tree a young man should plant 
to enjoy in his old age, as a very slight injury will kill it 
just when one may need it most. Still, it is so beautiful 
we should not entirely dispense with it. It has one 
variety with autumnal foliage of richest red, even 
handsomer than red maple, the leaves being so much 
the larger. The cut-leaved silver maple is justly 
admired, especially the weeping form. 
The Red Maple ( Acer rubrum ) is also common- 
