Handbook of the Trees of New England Part 30

1. Leaf-buds.

2. Flower-buds.

3. Branch with sterile flowers.

4. Sterile flower.

5. Branch with sterile and fertile flowers.

6. Fertile flower.

7. Fruiting branch.

8. Variant leaves.

=Acer saccharinum, L.=

_Acer dasycarpum, Ehrh._

SILVER MAPLE. SOFT MAPLE. WHITE MAPLE. RIVER MAPLE.

=Habitat and Range.=--Along streams, in rich intervale lands, and in moist, deep-soiled forests, but not in swamps.

Infrequent from New Brunswick to Ottawa, abundant from Ottawa throughout Ontario.

Occasional throughout the New England states; most common and best developed upon the banks of rivers and lakes at low alt.i.tudes.

South to the Gulf states; west to Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, and Indian territory; attaining its maximum size in the basins of the Ohio and its tributaries; rare towards the seacoast throughout the whole range.

=Habit.=--A handsome tree, 50-60 feet in height; trunk 2-5 feet in diameter, separating a few feet from the ground into several large, slightly diverging branches. These, naked for some distance, repeatedly subdivide at wider angles, forming a very wide head, much broader near the top. The ultimate branches are long and slender, often forming on the lower limbs a pendulous fringe sometimes reaching to the ground.

Distinguished in winter by its characteristic graceful outlines, and by its flower-buds conspicuously scattered along the tips of the branchlets; in summer by the silvery-white under-surface of its deeply cut leaves. It is among the first of the New England trees to blossom, preceding the red maple by one to three weeks.

=Bark.=--Bark of trunk smooth and gray in young trees, becoming with age rougher and darker, more or less ridged, separating into thin, loose scales; young shoots chestnut-colored in autumn, smooth, polished, profusely marked with light dots.

=Winter Buds and Leaves.=--Flower-buds cl.u.s.tered near the ends of the branchlets, conspicuous in winter; scales imbricated, convex, polished, reddish, with ciliate margins; leaf-buds more slender, about 1/8 inch long, with similar scales, the inner lengthening, falling as the leaf expands. Leaves simple, opposite, 3-5 inches long, of varying width, light green above, silvery-white beneath, turning yellow in autumn; lobes 3, or more usually 5, deeply cut, sharp-toothed, sharp-pointed, more or less sublobed; sinuses deep, narrow, with concave sides; base sub-heart-shaped or truncate; stems long.

=Inflorescence.=--March to April. Much preceding the leaves; from short branchlets of the previous year, in simple, crowded umbels; flowers rarely perfect, the sterile and fertile sometimes on the same tree and sometimes on different trees, generally in separate cl.u.s.ters, yellowish-green or sometimes pinkish; calyx 5-notched, wholly included in bud-scales; petals none; sterile flowers long, stamens 3-7 much exserted, filaments slender, ovary abortive or none: fertile flowers broad, stamens about the length of calyx-tube, ovary woolly, with two styles scarcely united at the base.

=Fruit.=--Fruit ripens in June, earliest of the New England maples. Keys large, woolly when young, at length smooth, widely divergent, scythe-shaped or straight, yellowish-green, one key often aborted.

=Horticultural Value.=--Hardy in cultivation throughout New England. The grace of its branches, the beauty of its foliage, and its rapid growth make it a favorite ornamental tree. It attains its finest development when planted by the margin of pond or stream where its roots can reach water, but it grows well in any good soil. Easily transplanted, and more readily obtainable at a low price than any other tree in general use for street or ornamental purposes. The branches are easily broken by wind and ice, and the roots fill the ground for a long distance and exhaust its fertility.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE LXXII.--Acer saccharinum.]

1. Leaf-buds.

2. Flower-buds.

3. Branch with sterile flowers.

4. Branch with fertile flowers.

5. Branch with sterile and fertile flowers.

6. Sterile flower.

7. Fertile flower.

8. Perfect flower.

9. Fruiting branch.

=Acer Saccharum, Marsh.=

_Acer saccharinum, w.a.n.g._ _Acer barbatum, Michx._

ROCK MAPLE. SUGAR MAPLE. HARD MAPLE. SUGAR TREE.

=Habitat and Range.=--Rich woods and cool, rocky slopes.

Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, westward to Lake of the Woods.

New England,--abundant, distributed throughout the woods, often forming in the northern portions extensive upland forests; attaining great size in the mountainous portions of New Hampshire and Vermont, and in the Connecticut river valley; less frequent toward the seacoast.

South to the Gulf states; west to Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas, and Texas.

=Habit.=--A n.o.ble tree, 50-90 feet in height; trunk 2-5 feet in diameter, stout, erect, throwing out its primary branches at acute angles; secondary branches straight, slender, nearly horizontal or declining at the base, leaving the stem higher up at sharper and sharper angles, repeatedly subdividing, forming a dense and rather stiff spray of nearly uniform length; head symmetrical, varying greatly in shape; in young trees often narrowly cylindrical, becoming pyramidal or broadly egg-shaped with age; clothed with dense ma.s.ses of foliage, purple-tinged in spring, light green in summer, and gorgeous beyond all other trees of the forest, with the possible exception of the red maple, in its autumnal oranges, yellows, and reds.

=Bark.=--Bark of trunk and princ.i.p.al branches gray, very smooth, close and firm in young trees, in old trees becoming deeply furrowed, often cleaving up at one edge in long, thick, irregular plates; season's shoots at length of a shining reddish-brown, smooth, numerously pale-dotted, turning gray the third year.

=Winter Buds and Leaves.=--Buds sharp-pointed, reddish-brown, minutely p.u.b.escent, terminal 1/4 inch long, lateral 1/8 inch, appressed, the inner scales lengthening with the growth of the shoot. Leaves simple, opposite, 3-5 inches long, with a somewhat greater breadth, purplish and more or less p.u.b.escent when opening, at maturity dark green above, paler, with or without p.u.b.escence beneath, changing to brilliant reds and yellows in autumn; lobes sometimes 3, usually 5, ac.u.minate, sparingly sinuate-toothed, with shallow, rounded sinuses; base subcordate, truncate, or wedge-shaped; veins and veinlets conspicuous beneath; leafstalks long, slender.

=Inflorescence.=--April 1-15. Appearing with the leaves in nearly sessile cl.u.s.ters, from terminal and lateral buds; flowers greenish-yellow, pendent on long thread-like, hairy stems; sterile and fertile on the same or on different trees, usually in separate, but not infrequently in the same cl.u.s.ter; the 5-lobed calyx cylindrical or bell-shaped, hairy; petals none; stamens 6-8, in sterile flowers much longer than the calyx, in fertile scarcely exserted; ovary smooth, abortive in sterile flowers, in fertile surmounted by a single style with two divergent, thread-like, stigmatic lobes.

=Fruit.=--Keys usually an inch or more in length, glabrous, wings broad, mostly divergent, falling late in autumn.

=Horticultural Value.=--Hardy throughout New England. Its long life, n.o.ble proportions, beautiful foliage, dense shade, moderately rapid growth, usual freedom from disease or insect disfigurement, and adaptability to almost any soil not saturated with water make it a favorite in cultivation; readily obtainable in nurseries, transplants easily, recovers its vigor quickly, and has a nearly uniform habit of growth.

=Note.=--Not liable to be taken for any other native maple, but sometimes confounded with the cultivated Norway maple, _Acer platanoides_, from which it is easily distinguished by the milky juice which exudes from the broken petiole of the latter.

The leaves of the Norway maple are thinner, bright green and glabrous beneath, and its keys diverge in a straight line.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE LXXIII.--Acer saccharum.]

1. Winter buds.

2. Flowering branch.

3. Sterile flower.

4. Fertile flower, part of perianth and stamens removed.

5. Fruiting branch.

=Acer saccharum, Marsh., var. nigrum, Britton.=

_Acer nigrum, Michx. Acer saccharinum,_ var. _nigrum, T. & G. Acer barbatum,_ var. _nigrum, Sarg._

BLACK MAPLE.

=Habitat and Range.=--Low, damp ground on which, in New England at least, the sugar maple is rarely if ever seen, or upon moist, rocky slopes.

Apparently a common tree from Ottawa westward throughout Ontario.