Fig. 610
Leavesoblong-obovate to elliptic, rounded and rarely emarginate or acute at apex, gradually narrowed and cuneate at base and entire, deeply tinged with red when they unfold and at maturity, 1′—1½′ long and ½′—¾′ wide, with thickened often slightly undulate margins, a slender midrib, obscure primary veins, and conspicuous reticulate veinlets; petioles stout, ⅙′—¼′ in length.Flowersusually solitary or in compact fascicles, short-stalked, about1/12′ in diameter; calyx-lobes rounded at apex, often persistent under the fruit, reddish, shorter than the white petals; ovary 3—4-celled.Fruitsolitary, short-stalked, broad-obovoid, 4-angled, rounded and minutely mucronate at apex, abruptly narrowed below, bright red, ¼′—⅓′ long and broad, 1-celled, 3—4-valved, the valves opening to the base, ridged down the inner surface with a low ridge developed from the dissepiment, 2—4-seeded;seedellipsoid, acute at the ends,1/12′ long, surrounded at base by an open bright red aril.
A round-topped tree, rarely 20° high, with a trunk 1°—2° in diameter (teste J. K. Small), and slender alternate glabrous pale gray branchlets; usually a low shrub.
Distribution.Florida, west coast, Captiva Island, Lee County, to the neighborhood of Cape Sable; Cocoanut Grove, Dade County, and on many of the southern keys; on bluffs of Matagorda Bay near Corpus Christi, Nueces County, Texas; in northern Mexico and Lower California; probably of its largest size in Florida on Sands Key and on Captiva Island.
A glabrous leafless tree, with light brown deeply furrowed bark, stout terete alternate branches terminating in rigid, pale green and striate spines, their base and those of the peduncles surrounded by black triangular persistent cushion-like processes minutely papillose on the surface. Flowers perfect, on slender spreading pedicels jointed below the middle, 3—7 together, in short-stemmed fascicles or corymbs near the end of the branches, from the axils of minute ovate subulate bracts; calyx 5-lobed, minute, persistent, much shorter than the oblong obtuse white hypogynous petals imbricated in the bud, reflexed at maturity above the middle, deciduous; stamens 5, hypogynous, opposite the lobes of the calyx; filaments awl-shaped, rather shorter than the petals, persistent on the fruit; anthers oblong, cordate, minutely apiculate, attached below the middle, grooved on the back; ovary raised upon and confluent with a fleshy slightly 10-angled gynophore, papillose-glandular on the surface, 5-celled, the cells opposite the petals, terminating in a fleshy elongated style; stigma slightly 5-lobed; ovules 6 in each cell, inserted in 2 ranks on itsinner angle, subhorizontal; micropyle inferior. Fruit a woody ovoid, acuminate capsule rounded at base, crowned with the subulate persistent style, septicidally 5-valved, the valves 2-lobed at apex; outer coat thin, fleshy; inner coat woody. Seed solitary or in pairs, ascending, subovoid, flattened; seed-coat subcoriaceous, papillate, produced below into a subfalcate membranaceous wing; embryo surrounded by thin fleshy albumen, erect; cotyledons oval, compressed; radicle very short, inferior.
The genus is represented by a single species.
The generic name is that by which this plant was known to the Mexicans of Arizona at the time of its discovery.
Fig. 611
Leaves0.Flowers⅛′—¼′ in diameter, appearing from June until October. Capsule 1′ long;seedabout ¾′ in length.
A small shrub-like tree, sometimes 20°—30° high, with a short stout trunk rarely a foot in diameter; or often a low spreading shrub.
Distribution.Dry gravelly mesas on the Arizona foothills, from the White Mountain region to the valley of Bill Williams’s Fork in the northwestern part of the state, and on Providence Mountain in southern California.
Trees or shrubs, with pale quadrangular branchlets and minute acuminate buds. Leaves opposite, short-petiolate, oblong-obovate, rounded and sometimes emarginate at apex, entire or remotely crenulate-serrate above the middle with revolute thickened margins, feather-veined, coriaceous, persistent; stipules minute, acuminate, membranaceous, caducous. Flowers unisexual, pedicellate, in axillary pedunculate few-flowered dichotomously branched cymes bibracteolate at apex; calyx minute, 4-lobed, persistent, with a short urceolate tube and rounded lobes; disk fleshy, filling the tube of the calyx, cup-shaped, slightly 4-lobed; petals entire, obovate, white, rounded at apex, reflexed, much longer than the lobes of the calyx; stamens 4, opposite the sepals, inserted in the lobes of the disk, exserted, 0 in the pistillate flower; filaments slender, subulate, incurved; anthers oblong; ovary 2-celled, oblong, sessile, confluent with the disk, crowned with a large 2-lobed sessile stigma, rudimentary and deeply cleft in the staminate flower; ovule solitary, suspended from the apex of the cell; raphe dorsal; micropyle superior. Fruit drupaceous, 2-celled, 1 or 2-seeded, black or dark blue, oval or obovoid, crowned with the remnants ofthe persistent stigma, often 1-celled by abortion; flesh thin; stone thick, crustaceous. Seed oblong, suspended; seed-coat membranaceous; albumen thin, fleshy; embryo axile; cotyledons ovate, foliaceous; radicle superior, next the hilum.
Gyminda with a single species is distributed from southern Florida to Trinidad and southern Mexico, and is represented in Central America by what is perhaps a second species.
The generic name is formed by transposing the first three letters ofMyginda, to which this plant had been referred.
Gyminda GrisebachiiSarg.
Fig. 612
Leaves1½′—2′ long, ¾′—1′ broad, pale yellow-green.Flowersproduced on shoots of the year from April to June.Fruitripening in November, ¼′ long.
A tree, sometimes 20°—25° high, with a trunk rarely more than 6′ in diameter, and branchlets becoming terete during their third season and covered with thin slightly grooved roughened bright red-brown bark.Barkof the trunk thin, brown tinged with red, separating into thin minute scales.Woodvery heavy, hard, close-grained, dark brown or nearly black, with thick light brown sapwood of 75—80 layers of annual growth.
Distribution.Florida, common and generally distributed over the southern keys from the Marquesas group to Upper Matecombe Key; in Cuba, Porto Rico, Trinidad, and southern Mexico. A form (var.glaucescens, Small.) with smaller less coriaceous very glaucous leaves occurs in Cuba.
Glabrous trees or shrubs, with slender rigid terete branches and small obtuse buds. Leaves alternate, or fascicled on short spur-like branchlets, entire, obovate or spatulate, acute and minutely apiculate or gradually narrowed to the rounded or emarginate apex, cuneate below, persistent, without stipules. Flowers diœcious, pedicellate in axillary clusters from buds covered by scale-like persistent bracts; calyx 4-lobed, the lobes orbicular, persistent, much shorter than the 4 hypogynous, oblong, obtuse, white or greenish white petals; stamens 4, hypogynous, inserted under the margin of the small inconspicuous disk opposite the lobes of the calyx, wanting in the pistillate flower; filaments subulate, incurved; anthers oblong-ovoid; ovary 2-celled, ovoid, sessile, free, rudimentary in thestaminate flower; style very short, gradually enlarged into the large 2-lobed stigma, with spreading lobes; ovule solitary, ascending; raphe thin, ventral; micropyle inferior. Fruit a small 2-seeded fleshy drupe, ovoid or obovoid, crowned with the remnants of the persistent style, indistinctly 2-lobed by longitudinal grooves, slightly flattened; flesh thin and tuberculate; nutlets 2, obovoid, rounded at the ends, with a thick bony shell. Seed solitary, ascending; seed-coat membranaceous; albumen fleshy; cotyledons broad, foliaceous; radicle very short, inferior, next the hilum.
Schæfferia with four or five species is confined to the New World, with one species in southern Florida, and another, a small shrub,Schæfferia cuneifoliaA. Gray in the arid region of western Texas and northern Mexico.
The generic name is in honor of Jakob Christian Schaeffer (1718—1790), the distinguished German naturalist.
Fig. 613
Leavesbright yellow-green, 2′—2½′ long, ½′-1′ wide, with thick revolute margins, appearing in Florida in April and persistent on the branches until the spring of the following year; petioles short and broad.Flowersopening in spring on branchlets of the year, ⅛′ across, the staminate generally 3 or 5 together on pedicels rarely more than ⅙′ long, the pistillato solitary or 2 or 3 together on pedicels rather longer than the petioles.Fruitripening in Florida in November, slightly grooved, compressed, bright scarlet, with an acrid disagreeable flavor.
A glabrous tree, 35°—40° high, with a trunk sometimes 8′—10′ in diameter, erect branches, and slender many-angled branchlets pale greenish yellow during their first season, becoming light gray during their second year and then conspicuously marked by the remains of the persistent wart-like clusters of bud-scales; or often a tall or low shrub.Barkof the trunk rarely more than1/12′ thick, pale brown faintly tinged with red, the surface divided by long shallow fissures, and ultimately separating into long narrow scales.Woodheavy, close-grained, bright clear yellow, with thick rather lighter colored sapwood; sometimes used as a substitute for boxwood in wood engraving.
Distribution.Florida, upper Matecombe and Old Rhodes Keys, and eastward on the southern keys, and on the Everglade Keys, Dade County; on the Bahama Islands, and widely distributed through the West Indies to Venezuela.
Trees or rarely shrubs, with limpid juice, terete branches, scaly buds, their inner scales accrescent and marking the base of the branchlets with ring-like scars, and fibrous roots. Leaves opposite, or on vigorous shoots rarely in whorls of 3, long-petiolate, simple, palmately 3—7-lobed and nerved or pinnately 3—7-foliolulate, usually without stipules, deciduous, in falling leaving small U-shaped narrow scars showing the ends of 3 equidistant fibro-vascular bundles. Flowers regular, diœciously or monœciously polygamous, rarely perfect or diœcious, in fascicles produced from separate lateral buds appearing in early spring before the leaves or in terminal and lateral racemes or panicles appearing with or later than the leaves; bracts minute, caducous; calyx colored, generally 5-parted, the lobes imbricated in the bud; petals usually 5, imbricated in the bud, or 0; disk annular, fleshy, more or less lobed, with a free margin; stamens 4—10, usually 7 or 8, inserted on the summit or inside of the disk, hypogynous; filaments distinct, filiform, commonly exserted in the staminate, shorter and generally abortive in the pistillate flower; anthers oblong or linear, attached at the base, introrse, 2-celled, the cells opening longitudinally; ovary 2-lobed, 2-celled, compressed contrary to the dissepiment, wing-margined on the back; styles 2, inserted between the lobes of the ovary, connate below and divided into 2 linear branches stigmatose on their inner surface; ovules 2 in each cell, collateral, rarely superposed, ascending, attached by their broad base to the inner angle of the cell, anatropous or amphitropous; micropyle inferior. Fruit composed of 2 samaras separable from a small persistent axis, the nut-like carpels compressed laterally, produced on the back into a large chartaceous or coriaceous reticulated obovate wing thickened on the lower margin. Seed solitary by abortion, or rarely 2 in each cell, ovoid, compressed, irregularly 3-angled, ascending obliquely, without albumen; seed-coat membranaceous, the inner coat often fleshy; embryo conduplicate; cotyledons thin, foliaceous or coriaceous, irregularly plicate, incumbent or accumbent on the elongated descending radicle turned toward the hilum.
A family of two genera, one widely distributed, the other, Dipteronia, distinguished by the broad wings encircling the mature carpels, and represented by a single Chinese species.
Characters of the family.
Acer with sixty or seventy species is widely distributed over the northern hemisphere, with a single species extending south of the equator to the mountains of Java. Acer produces light close-grained moderately hard wood valued for the interior finish of houses and in turnery. The bark is astringent, and the limpid sweet sap of some of the American species is manufactured into sugar.
Aceris the classical name of the Maple-tree.
Fig. 614
Leavesglabrous, thin, rounded in outline, cordate-truncate or cuneate at base, 3—5-lobed, the middle lobe usually narrowed and entire below the middle, or often 3-parted or 3-foliolate (f.trisectaSarg.), with acute or obtuse doubly serrate lobes, 3′—5′ in diameter, dark green and lustrous on the upper, paler on the lower surface, with conspicuous veinlets; petioles stout, grooved, 1′—6′ in length, and often bright red.Flowersabout ⅛′ long on short slender pedicels, in loose few-flowered glabrous racemose corymbs on slender drooping peduncles from the end of 2-leaved branchlets, the staminate and pistillate usually produced separately on different plants; sepals oblong, obtuse, petaloid, as long as thegreenish yellow petals; stamens 7 or 8, with glabrous unequal filaments shorter than the petals, much shorter or rudimentary in the pistillate flower; ovary glabrous, with short obtuse lobes, rudimentary or 0 in the staminate flower; style divided to the base into 2 spreading stigmatic lobes as long as the petals.Fruitglabrous, with broad nearly erect or slightly spreading wings ¾′—⅞′ long, often rose-colored during the summer;seedsovoid, bright chestnut-brown, about ¼′ long.
A small tree, occasionally 20°—30° high, with a short trunk 6′—12′ in diameter, small upright branches, and slender glabrous branchlets often slightly many-angled, pale greenish brown when they first appear, becoming bright red-brown during their first winter; often a shrub.Winter-budsacute, ⅛′ long, with bright red or occasionally yellow scales, those of the inner ranks pale brown tinged with pink, tomentose on the inner surface, becoming 1½′ long and narrow-spatulate.Barkof the trunk thin, smooth, and dark reddish brown.Woodheavy, hard, close-grained, light brown or often nearly white, with thick lighter colored sapwood.
Distribution.Borders of mountain streams usually at elevations of 5000°—6000°; Rocky Mountains from Montana to Wyoming, the Black Hills of South Dakota, Sioux County, Nebraska, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, northern Arizona, and to the Sacramento Mountains, New Mexico; in California from the Siskiyou Mountains along the Sierra Nevada to the East Fork of the Kaweah River, Kern County, at altitudes of 5000°—6000° at the north and of 8000°—9000° at the south. Passing into
Acer DouglasiiHook.
Fig. 615
Leavesovate or oblong-ovate, slightly cordate by a wide shallow sinus, truncate or rarely rounded at base, 3-lobed with acuminate lobes often slightly divided into acuminate lobules, the terminal leaflet usually ovate from a broad base, or occasionally gradually narrowed below and rhombic in outline and sharply serrate to the base or nearly to the base of the lobe with long-acuminate teeth pointing forward, dark green above, paler and often glaucescent below, 3½′—4′ long and 3′—4′ wide, with 3 prominent nerves extending to the points of the lobes, and slender veins; petioles glabrous, 1′—3½′ in length.Flowersas in the species.Fruitwith erect or nearly erect wings, ¾′—1′ long and ⅓′—½′ wide.
A tree, occasionally 40° high, with a short trunk 12′—18′ in diameter, small upright branches and slender bright red-brown branchlets.
Distribution.Coast of southern Alaska (head of Lynn Canal), southward near the coast to Vancouver Island and western Washington, and eastward on the high mountains of Washington to the Blue Mountains of eastern Oregon, western Idaho and northern Montana; on Loomis Creek, Natrona County, Wyoming.
Fig. 616
Leavesalmost circular in outline, cordate at base by a broad shallow sinus, or sometimes almost truncate, palmately 7—9-lobed occasionally nearly to the middle, with acute lobes sharply and irregularly doubly serrate, and conspicuously palmately nerved, with prominent veinlets, when they unfold tinged with rose color, and puberulous, especially on the lower surface and on the petioles, and at maturity glabrous with the exception of tufts of pale hairs in the axils of the large veins, thin and membranaceous, dark green above, pale below, and 2′—7′ in diameter; in the autumn turning orange and scarlet; petioles stout, grooved, 1′—2′ in length, clasping the stem by their large base.Flowersappearing when the leaves are about half grown, in loose 10—20-flowered umbel-like corymbs pendent on long stems from the end of slender 2-leaved branchlets, the staminate and pistillate flowers produced together; sepals oblong to obovate, acute, villose, purple or red, much longer than the greenish white broad, cordate petals folded together at apex; stamens 6-8, with slender filaments villose at base, exserted in the staminate flower, much shorter than the petals in the pistillate flower; ovary glabrous, with spreading lobes, in the staminate flower reduced to a small point surrounded by a tuft of pale hairs; style divided nearly to the base into long exserted stigmas.Fruitwith thin wings, 1½′ long, spreading almost at right angles, red or rose color like the nutlets in early summer, ripening late in the autumn;seedssmooth, pale chestnut-brown, ⅛′¼′ long.
A tree, rarely 30°—40° high, often vine-like or prostrate, with a trunk 10′—12′ in diameter, and glabrous pale green or reddish brown branchlets frequently covered during their first winter with a glaucous bloom, and occasionally marked by small lenticels; often a low wide-spreading shrub.Winter-buds⅛′ long, rather obtuse, with thin bright red outer scales rounded on the back, and obovate-spatulate inner scales rounded at apex, contracted into a long narrow claw, bright rose-colored and more or less pubescent, especially on the outer surface, and when fully grown often 2′ long and ¼′ broad.Barkof the trunk thin, smooth, bright red-brown, marked by numerous shallow fissures.Woodheavy, hard, close-grained, not strong, light brown, sometimes nearly white, with thick lighter colored sapwood; usedfor fuel, the handles of axes and other tools, and by the Indians of the northwest coast for the bows of their fishing-nets.
Distribution.Banks of streams; coast of British Columbia through western Washington and Oregon to Mendocino County, and the cañon of the upper Sacramento River, California; one of the most abundant of the deciduous-leaved trees of western Washington and Oregon up to altitudes of 4000° above the sea, and of its largest size on the rich alluvial soil of bottom-lands, its vine-like stems in such situations springing 4 or 5 together from the ground, spreading in wide curves and sending out long slender branches rooting when they touch the ground and forming impenetrable thickets of contorted and interlaced trunks, often many acres in extent; in California smaller and less abundant, growing along streams in the coniferous forest or rarely on dry ridges up to an altitude of 4000° in the northeastern part of the state.
Occasionally cultivated as an ornamental plant in Europe, and in the eastern states, and hardy as far north as eastern Massachusetts.
Fig. 617
Leavessubcordate or sometimes truncate at base, conspicuously 3-nerved, 3 or slightly 5-lobed, with gradually narrowed pointed lobes, and sharply and coarsely glandular-serrate, when they unfold puberulous on the upper surface and densely tomentose on the lower surface, and at maturity thin, 4′—5′ long and broad; turning in the autumn to various shades of orange and scarlet; petioles slender, enlarged at base, 2′—3′ in length, often becoming scarlet in summer.Flowersopening in June after the leaves are fully grown, ¼′ diameter, on slender pedicels ½′—¾′ long, the pistillate toward the base and the staminate at the apex of a narrow many-flowered long-stemmed upright slightly compound pubescent raceme; calyx-lobes narrow-obovate, yellow, pubescent on the outer surface, much shorter than the linear-spatulate pointed yellow petals; stamens 7 or 8, inserted immediately under the ovary, with slender glabrous filaments as long as the petals in the sterile flower, about as long as the sepals in the pistillate flower, and glandular anthers; ovary hoary-tomentose, reduced to a minute point surrounded by a tuft of pale hairs in the staminate flower; style columnar, almost as long as the petals, with short stigmatic lobes.Fruitfully grown and bright red or yellow in July, turning brown late in the autumn, almost glabrous, with more or less divergent wings about ½′ long;seedssmooth, dark red-brown, ⅛′ long.
A bushy tree, occasionally 25°—30° high, with a short trunk 6′—8′ in diameter, small upright branches, and slender branchlets light gray and pubescent when they first appear,becoming glabrous during the summer, bright red during their first winter, gray or pale brown the following season, and blotched or streaked with green toward the base; more often a tall or low shrub.Winter-budsacute; the terminal ⅛′ long, with bright red outer scales more or less coated with hoary tomentum, those of the inner ranks becoming at maturity 1′ or more in length and then lanceolate, pale and papery; axillary buds much smaller and glabrous or puberulous.Barkof the trunk very thin, reddish brown, smooth or slightly furrowed.Woodlight, soft, close-grained, light brown tinged with red, with thick lighter colored sapwood.
Distribution.Moist rocky hillsides usually in the shade of other trees, and really arborescent only on the western slopes of the high mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina; Newfoundland and Labrador to Hudson Bay, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan, and southward through the northern states, and westward to Minnesota and northeastern Iowa, and along the Appalachian Mountains to northern Georgia.
Occasionally cultivated as an ornament of parks and gardens in the northern states.
Fig. 618
Leavesrounded or cordate at base, palmately 3-nerved, 3-lobed at apex, with short lobes contracted into a tapering serrate point, and finely and sharply doubly serrate, when they unfold thin, pale rose color and coated with ferrugineous pubescence, especially on the lower surface and on the petioles, and at maturity glabrous with the exception of tufts of ferrugineous hairs in the axils of the principal nerves on the two surfaces, thin, pale green above, rather paler below, 5′—6′ long and 4′—5′ wide; turning in the autumn clear light yellow; petioles stout, grooved, 1½′—2′ in length, with an enlarged base nearly encircling the branch.Flowersbright canary-yellow, opening toward the end of May or early in June when the leaves are nearly fully grown, on slender pedicels ¼′—½′ long, in slender drooping long-stemmed racemes 4′—6′ in length, the staminate and pistillate usually in different racemes on the same plant; sepals linear-lanceolate to obovate, ¼′ long and a little shorter and narrower than the obovate petals; stamens 7—8, shorter than the petals in the staminate flower, rudimentary in the pistillate flower; ovary purplish brown, glabrous, in the staminate flower reduced to a minute point; styles united nearly to the top, with spreading recurved stigmas.Fruitin long drooping racemes, glabrous, with thin spreading wings ¾′ long, and marked on one side of each nutlet by a small cavity;seeds¼′ long, dark red-brown, and slightly rugose.
A tree, 30°—40° high, with a short trunk 8′—10′ in diameter, small upright branches, and slender smooth branchlets pale greenish yellow at first, bright reddish brown during theirfirst winter, and at the end of two or three years striped like the trunk with broad pale lines; or often much smaller and shrubby in habit.Winter-buds: the terminal conspicuously stipitate, sometimes almost ½′ long, much longer than the axillary buds, covered by two thick bright red spatulate boat-shaped scales prominently keeled on the back, the inner scales green and foliaceous, becoming 1½′—2′ long, ½′ wide, pubescent, and bright yellow or rose color.Barkof the trunk ⅛′—¼′ thick, reddish brown, marked longitudinally by broad pale stripes, and roughened by many oblong horizontal excrescences.Woodlight, soft, close-grained, light brown, with thick lighter colored sapwood of 30-40 layers of annual growth.
Distribution.Usually in the shade of other trees, often forming in northern New England a large part of their shrubby undergrowth; shores of Ha-Ha Bay, Quebec, westward along the shores of Lake Ontario and the islands of Lake Huron to northern Wisconsin, and southward through the Atlantic states and along the Appalachian Mountains to northern Georgia; ascending to altitudes of 5000°; common in the north Atlantic states, especially in the interior and elevated regions; of its largest size on the slopes of the Big Smoky Mountains, Tennessee, and of the Blue Ridge in North and South Carolina.
Sometimes cultivated as an ornamental tree in the northern states, and occasionally in Europe.
Fig. 619
Leavesmore or less cordate at the broad base, deeply 5-lobed by narrow sinuses acute in the bottom, the lobes acute or acuminate, the terminal lobe often 3-lobed, the others usually furnished with small lateral lobules, the lower lobes much smaller than the others, prominently 3—5-nerved, puberulous when they unfold, especially on the upper surface along the principal veins, and at maturity subcoriaceous, dark green and lustrous on the upper surface, pale on the lower surface, 8′—12′ in diameter; turning in the autumn bright orange color before falling; petioles stout, 10′—12′ in length, with enlarged bases united and encircling the stem and often furnished on the inside with small tufts of white hairs.Flowersbright yellow, fragrant, ¼′ long, on slender pubescent often branched pedicels ½′—¾′ in length, the staminate and pistillate together in graceful pendulous slightly puberulous racemes 4′—6′ long, appearing in April and May after the leaves are fully grown; sepals petaloid, obovate, obtuse and a little longer and broader than the spatulate petals; stamens 9—10, with long slender filaments hairy at base, exserted in the staminate flower and included in the pistillate flower, and orange-colored anthers; ovary hoary-tomentose, reduced in the staminate flower to a minute point; styles united at base only; stigmas long and exserted.Fruitfully grown by the 1st of July and ripening late in the autumn; nutlets covered with long pale hairs, their wings 1½′ long, ½′ wide, slightly divergent and glabrous with the exception of a few hairs on the thickened edge;seedsdark-colored, rugose and pitted, ¼′ long.
A tree, 80°—100° high, with a tall straight trunk 2°—3° in diameter, stout often pendulous branches forming a compact handsome head, and stout branchlets smooth and pale green at first, becoming bright green or dark red in their first winter, covered more or less thickly with small longitudinal white lenticels, and in their second summer gray or grayish brown.Winter-budsobtuse; terminal ¼′ long, with short broad slightly spreading dark red ciliate outer scales rounded on the back, those of the inner ranks green and foliaceous, and at maturity 1½′ long, colored and puberulous; axillary buds minute.Barkof the trunk ½′—¾′ thick, brown faintly tinged with red or bright reddish brown, deeply furrowed and broken on the surface into small square plate-like scales.Woodlight, soft, not strong, close-grained, rich brown tinged with red, with thick lighter colored often nearly white sapwood of 60—80 layers of annual growth; more valuable than the wood produced by other deciduous-leaved trees of western North America, and in Washington and Oregon used in the interior finish of buildings, for furniture, and for axe and broom-handles.
Distribution.Banks of streams or on rich bottom-lands or the rocky slopes of mountain valleys; coast of Alaska south of latitude 55° north, southward along the islands and coast of British Columbia, through Washington and Oregon west of the Cascade Mountains, and southward along the coast ranges and the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada to the San Bernardino Mountains, and to Hot Spring Valley, San Diego County, California; on the Sierra Nevada usually between altitudes of 2000° and 5000° and on the southern mountains rarely above 3000°; most abundant and of its largest size in the humid climate and rich soil of the bottom-lands of southwestern Oregon, forming extensive forests; in California usually much smaller, especially on the coast ranges.
Generally planted in the Pacific States for shade and as a street tree, and occasionally in the Eastern States as far north as Long Island, New York, and in western Europe; not hardy in Massachusetts.
Fig. 620
Leavesrarely in whorls of 3, heart-shaped by a broad sinus, truncate or sometimes cuneate at base, 3—5-lobed, the lobes usually acute sparingly sinuate-toothed usually 3-lobulate at apex, with 3—5 conspicuous nerves, and reticulate veinlets, when they unfold coated below with pale pubescence, glabrous or more or less pubescent on the nerves below (var.SchneckiiRehd.) and at maturity, 4′—5′ in diameter, often rather coriaceous, dark green and opaque on the upper surface, green or pale (var.glabrumSarg.) on the lower surface; turning in the autumn brilliant shades of deep red, scarlet and orange or clear yellow; petioles slender, glabrous, 1½—3′ in length.Flowersappearing with the leaves on slender more or less hairy pedicels ¾′—3′ long, in nearly sessile umbel-like corymbs from terminal leaf-buds and lateral leafless buds, the staminate and pistillate in the same or in separate clusters on the same or on different trees; calyx broad-campanulate, 5-lobed by the partial union of the obtuse sepals, greenish yellow, hairy on the outer surface; corolla 0; stamens 7—8, with slender glabrous filaments twice as long as the calyx in the staminate flower and much shorter in the pistillate flower; ovary obtusely lobed, pale green, covered with long scattered hairs, in the staminate flower reduced to a minute point; styles united at base only, with 2 long exserted stigmatic lobes.Fruitripening in the autumn, glabrous, with broad thin and usually divergent wings ½′—1′ long;seedssmooth, bright red-brown, ¼′ long.
A tree, 100°—120° high, with a trunk often 3°—4° in diameter, rising sometimes in the forest to the height of 60°—70° without branches, or in open situations developing 8°—10° from the ground stout upright branches forming while the tree is young a narrow egg-shaped head, ultimately spreading into a broad round-topped dome often 70°—80° across, and slender glabrous branchlets green at first, becoming reddish brown by the end of their first season, lustrous, marked by numerous large pale oblong lenticels, and in their second winter pale brown tinged with red.Winter-budsacute, ¼′ long, with purple slightly puberulousouter scales, and inner scales becoming 1½′ long, narrow-obovate, short-pointed at apex, thin, pubescent, and bright canary yellow.Barkof young stems and of large branches pale, smooth or slightly fissured, becoming on large trunks ½′—¾′ thick and broken into deep longitudinal furrows, the light gray-brown surface separating into small plate-like scales.Woodheavy, hard, strong, close-grained, tough, light brown tinged with red, with thin sapwood of 30-40 layers of annual growth; largely used for the interior finish of buildings, especially for floors, in the manufacture of furniture, in turnery, shipbuilding, for shoe-lasts and pegs, and largely as fuel. Accidental forms with the grain curled and contorted, known as curly maple and bird’s-eye maple, are common and are highly prized in cabinet-making. The ashes of the wood are rich in alkali and yield large quantities of potash. Maple sugar is principally made from the sap of this tree.
Distribution.Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, westward to the Lake of the Woods, Ontario, and southward through eastern Canada and the northern states, and along the Appalachian Mountains to northern Georgia; in central Alabama and Mississippi, and westward in the United States to Minnesota, northeastern South Dakota (coulées of Little Minnesota River, Roberts County), central and northwestern Iowa, eastern Kansas, central Oklahoma, and eastern Louisiana; most abundant northward; ascending in North Carolina the Alleghany Mountains to altitudes of 3000°; the var.glabrumrare and local in the north from Prince Edwards Island and Lake St. John, Quebec, to Iowa and southward to Pennsylvania, Ohio and central Tennessee; more abundant southward; apparently the only form but not common in South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and southern Arkansas; the var.Schneckiiwith leaves glaucous or glaucescent below and more or less densely pubescent with spreading hairs, on the under side of the midrib and veins and on the petioles, southern Indiana and Illinois to western Kentucky and western and middle Tennessee, northwestern Georgia (near Rome, Floyd County), and to eastern Missouri southward to Williamsville, Wayne County.
Commonly planted as a shade and ornamental tree in the northern states.
More distinct are the following varieties:
Fig. 621
Leavesthick, 3′—5′ long and 4′—6′ wide, pale and glabrous below, 3-lobed by broad rounded sinuses, rounded or slightly cordate at base, the lobes long-acuminate, usually entire, the middle lobe occasionally slightly undulate, the lateral lobes spreading, sometimes furnished near the base with a short acute lobule.
Distribution.Southeastern Ohio to western Pennsylvania (Kittaning, Armstrong County) and eastern and middle Tennessee, and to southern Ontario, the southern peninsula of Michigan, eastern and central Indiana, southern Illinois, eastern Missouri and northwestern Arkansas (Eureka Springs, Carroll County); rare and local in its extreme form; its 3-lobed leaves sometimes appearing on upper branches of trees bearing on lower branches leaves of the typical Sugar Maple.
Acer sinuosumRehd.
Fig. 622
Leavessuborbicular, broader than long, 3—5-lobed with short triangular-ovate to triangular-oblong obtuse lobes, entire or on vigorous shoots occasionally dentate, usually broad-cordate at base, often with the nerves of the two lateral lobes projecting into thebroad sinus and forming its base, when they unfold glabrous and purplish above, loosely hairy below, soon glabrous, and at maturity dark yellow-green and lustrous on the upper surface, pale, reticulate-venulose and glabrous except in the axils of the principal veins on the lower surface, 3—5-nerved, usually not more than 1½′ long, occasionally up to 2¾′ long and 3′ wide; petioles slender, glabrous, ½′—1½′ in length.Flowersappearing with the leaves, on slender glabrous pedicels, ½′—1¼ long, in 3—8-flowered nearly sessile corymbs; calyx broad-campanulate or cupulate, with short semiorbicular lobes ciliate on the margins; petals 0; stamens usually 6, with slender filaments longer than the calyx of the staminate flower; style divided to below the middle, with two spreading stigmas.Fruitglabrous, with long and broad almost horizontally spreading nutlets, convex, smooth, pale yellow-brown, the wing curved upward.
A tree, rarely more than 20° high with a short trunk 8′—10′ in diameter, small branches forming an open irregular head, and slender glabrous branchlets light green above when they first appear, becoming pale red-brown and marked by pale lenticels during their first season and ultimately dull gray-brown.Barkof the trunk smooth, pale gray.Winter-budssmall, obtuse, covered with dark brown scales, those of the inner ranks accrescent, linear-oblong, scarlet or pink, up to 1⅛′ in length when fully grown.
Distribution.Edwards Plateau of western Texas, banks and bluffs of Cibolo Creek, near Boerne, Kendall County, on the rocky banks of upper Saco Creek, Bandera County, and at the base of a high limestone bluff near Utopia, Uvalde County; rare and local.
Fig. 623
Leavesrounded, truncate or slightly cordate at the broad base, 3—5-lobed, with short obtuse or acute entire or lobulate lobes, when they unfold sparingly hairy on the upper surface and hoary-tomentose on the lower surface, and at maturity thin, dark green and lustrous above, pale or glaucescent and pubescent below, 1½′—3′ in diameter, and prominently 3—5-nerved, with stout spreading lateral veins and conspicuous reticulate veinlets; turning yellow and scarlet in the autumn before falling; petioles slender, glabrous, or pubescent generally becoming glabrous, 1½′—3′ in length, with an enlarged base nearly encircling the branchlet.Flowersappearing with the leaves on slender elongated sparingly hairy ultimately glabrous or villose-tomentose (var.villipesRehd.) pedicels, in many-flowered drooping nearly sessile corymbs; calyx campanulate, yellow, about ⅛′ long, persistent under the fruit, the short lobes ciliate on the margins with long pale hairs; corolla 0.Fruitgreen,sparingly villose until fully grown, usually becoming glabrous, with spreading occasionally erect wings ⅜′—¾′ long;seedssmooth, bright red-brown, about ¼′ long.
A tree, occasionally 50°—60° high, with a trunk rarely 3° in diameter, small erect and spreading branches, and slender glabrous or more or less densely villose-tomentose (var.villipesRehdr.) branchlets, light green when they first appear, becoming rather light red-brown during their first season, and covered with minute pale lenticels; usually smaller.Winter-budsobtuse, about ⅛′ long, with dark chestnut-brown obtuse scales and bright rose-colored linear-spatulate inner scales often 1′ long when fully grown.Barkof the trunk thin, smooth, pale, becoming near the base of old trees thick, dark, and deeply furrowed.
Distribution.River banks and low wet woods, southeastern Virginia (near McKinney, Dinwiddie County,W. W. Ashe), valley of the Roanoke River near Weldon, Halifax County, North Carolina, and southward to southern Georgia and western Florida to Lafayette County; near Selma, Dallas County, Alabama; West Feliciana Parish and through western Louisiana to eastern Texas (Harrison and St. Augustine Counties), and southern Arkansas (Fulton, Hempstead County); the var.fillipesnear Raleigh, Walker County, North Carolina, Calhoun Falls, Abbeville County, South Carolina, Shell Bluff on the Savannah River, Burke County, Cuthbert, Randolph County, and Columbus, Muscogee County, Georgia; River Junction, Gadsden County, Florida, and on the San Luis Mountains, southern New Mexico (A. brachypterumWoot. & Stanl.).
Sometimes planted as a shade-tree; the prevailing tree in the streets and squares of Raleigh, North Carolina.