The Mack _.1ccr is a large, slow-growing tree, much like the pnccesling spa.ies, and by some botanists considered a variety of it. Its bark is rough :Ind dark. Its foliage is of a somber cast. The loaves are variable in ham, but in general have three broad lobes, each tapering to a single paint. Whin the leaves of the preceding species are sinimth and pale beneath, of the Black Alaple are green 011 both sides and pubescent along the veins underneath. The sap of this tree is rich in sugar.
The Norway Maple. Ace/. pittanoides. from _Europe, is one of our most popular shade trees. It has a low, round head, shingled over with large. lobed and toothed leaves. The flowers are borne on the shoots of the season and open before the leaves. They are smooth, zidul have both calyx and corolla. The samaras are large, flat and widely divergent the straight line in which they are united. This tree has milky juice. which is somewhat viscid.
The Sycamore Maple, Ace/ Pseudo-platanits, the great timber maple of Europe. is popular as an avenue tree in America. Its leaves are very large. five-lobed, with margins coarsely saw-toothed and crenate. The late-opening flowers are borne in long racemes, on which the little key fruits hang on the tree all winter.
In moist woods and the edges of forest highways one often catches a glimpse of two little maples, the Mountain Maple and the Striped Maple, which are the Tom Thumbs of their family. They are lovers of the shade, and keep company with the hazel bushes and the trailing yew, while others of their kind are reaching up and con tending for places on the upper sur face of the forest crown.
The Mountain Maple, _if cerspica titm, is scarcely more than a shrub, but it is always dainty and beauti ful, with its smooth, ruddy stems and twigs, whether they bear only clusters of tiny brown keys or the erect racemes of yellow flowers and the clear green lusty foliage. Each leaf is large and three-lobed, with tapering points, toothed margins, and heart-shaped bases.
Tile Striped Maple, _ice/ /lr(nui NOM sometimes grows to he (inite a tree. It has the most beautiful hark, briellt green and smooth, with pale lines streaking it in a delicate in id characteristic Cashion. Its leaves are large. ending with three triangu lar lobes on a level. They have finely slw-toothed marrins. The flowers are vel lowish tii(1 hang in drooping. vaccines.
They are followed I /V sun 10th keys with spreading• wings. Moosewood, this tree is called, fur moose like it.
The Box Elder. or Ash-leaved Maple, I cci Nopulo, was formerly called _Ypulo aceroidc,. it differs from all other maplcs in having compound instead of simple leaves, and in bearine• the staminate and pistillate [lowers on separate trees. These differences were formerly con sidered important (-molte• to justify placing the Box Eider in a genus by itself. However, these differences ire only a•centuations of tendencies we have already seen among the maples. The B,IX Elder is one of the fastest eTowine. and most hardv trees in cultiva it has had a pnoninent place among the shade trees planted in the prairie states. In older regions it generally gives place to slower growing trees. The chief objection to it is that it is always sheddine. something. The profusion of its silky fringes litter the ground under the staminate trees in spring, the leaves fall in ;Ind out of seasnn, and the pistillate trees shed their burden of seeds from early winter till late spring.
\ -11 ideal ari ale trot, in or America will be one of great size and tine symmetry. In Japan the people take their greatest pride in tiny maples grown in pats. These miniature trees have been brecl and cultivated for centuries. Their leaves and fruits show wonderful variations ill form, coloring and texture. At a certain season of the year when the maples are at their best it is the fashion for all the people to turn out and view them.