The Box Elder or Ash-Leaved Maple —Acer Negundo 
npHE most attractive feature of the Box 
Elder or Ash-leaved Maple is found in 
the rich coloring ol the twigs in autumn 
and winter. 1 hese are of a glorious olive 
green often covered with a glaucous bloom, 
one of the most satisfying hues in the world 
of trees. The broad buds are densely 
downy and generally greenish or brownish in 
color. 1 he bark of the older branches is 
greenish or brownish, while that of the trunk 
varies from yellowish green on young trees to 
dark grayish brown on older ones. 
l he pendent clusters of greenish yellow 
flowers appear in early spring, generally 
during the first half of April. The pollen¬ 
hearing and seed-hearing blossoms are on 
separate trees The former are in simple 
clusters of long-stemmed flowers; the latter 
are in long racemes. The leaves begin to 
develop as the blossoms appear, and soon 
clothe the tree with a compound foliage of a 
tender green color. Each leaf has from 
three to seven leaflets, and is of a very 
characteristic form which is well shown in the 
accompanying picture 
As the leaves fall from the Box Elder in 
October the fruit-laden tree seems scarcely to 
miss them, so thickly is it clothed with the 
long pendent racemes of gracef ul key-fruits. 
I here are often ten or a dozen fruits hanging 
from a single stalk, the distance from the base 
of the stalk to the tip of the terminal samara 
being commonly nine or ten inches. Each 
pair of fruits is joined at nearly a right angle, 
the fruit being slender at the base with a 
rather broad wing. These key-fruits often 
remain upon the tree through part of the 
winter, being whipped off one at a time by 
strong winds that carry them far and wide, 
leaving behind the stalks attached to the twigs. 
As a shade and ornamental tree the Box 
Elder has the advantages of rapid growth, 
dense foliage, good coloring, and comparative 
freedom from attack by insects and fungi. 
As it gets older, however, it often shows a 
certain lack of grace, and in some way it does 
not make the distinctive appeal that many 
of our shade trees do. It is variable in 
growth so that it is not desirable for planting 
in long rows where uniformity is desired. Of 
late years varieties with colored foliage have 
been developed and offered by nurserymen. 
As a native tree the Ash-leaved Maple is 
distributed throughout most of the Efnited 
States east of the Rocky Mountains. In 
California a special variety is indigenous. 
