Part 48

1. Winter buds. 2. Flowering branch. 3. Sterile flower. 4. Abortive ovary in sterile flower. 5. Fertile flower with part of the perianth and stamens removed. 6. Fruiting branch.

=Acer Pennsylvanicum, L.=

STRIPED MAPLE. MOOSEWOOD. WHISTLEWOOD.

=Habitat and Range.=--Cool, rocky or sandy woods.

Nova Scotia to Lake Superior.

Maine,--abundant, especially northward in the forests; New Hampshire and Vermont,--common in highland woods; Massachusetts,--common in the western and central sections, rare towards the coast; Rhode Island,--frequent northward; Connecticut,--frequent, reported as far south as Cheshire (New Haven county).

South on shaded mountain slopes and in deep ravines to Georgia; west to Minnesota.

=Habit.=--Shrub or small tree, 15-25 feet high, with a diameter at the ground of 5-8 inches; characterized by a slender, beautifully striate trunk and straight branches; by the roseate flush of the opening foliage, deepening later to a yellowish-green; and by the long, graceful, pendent racemes of yellowish flowers, succeeded by the abundant, drooping fruit.

=Bark.=--Bark of trunk and branches deep reddish-brown or dark green, conspicuously striped longitudinally with pale and blackish bands; roughish with light buff, irregular dots; the younger branches marked with oval leaf-scars and the linear scars of the leaf-scales; the season's shoots smooth, light green, mottled with black.

In spring the bark of the small branches is easily separable, giving rise to the name "whistle wood."

=Winter Buds and Leaves.=--Terminal bud long, short-stalked, obscurely 4-sided, tapering to a blunt tip; lateral buds small and flat; opening foliage roseate. Leaves simple, opposite; 5-6 inches long and nearly as broad; the upper leaves much narrower; when fully grown light green above, paler beneath, finally nearly glabrous, yellow in autumn, divided above the center into three deep acuminate lobes, finely, sharply, and usually doubly serrate; base heart-shaped, truncate, or rounded; leafstalks 1-3 inches long, grooved, the enlarged base including the leaf-buds of the next season.

=Inflorescence.=--In simple, drooping racemes, often 5-6 inches long, appearing after the leaves in late May or early June; the sterile and fertile flowers mostly in separate racemes on the same tree; the bell-shaped flowers on slender pedicels; petals and sepals greenish-yellow; sepals narrowly oblong, somewhat shorter than the obovate petals; stamens usually 8, shorter than the petals in the sterile flower, rudimentary in the fertile, the pistil abortive or none in the sterile flower, in the fertile terminating in a recurved stigma.

=Fruit.=--In long, drooping racemes of pale green keys, set at a wide but not uniform angle; distinguished from the other maples, except A. spicatum, by a small cavity in the side of each key; abundant; ripening in August.

=Horticultural Value.=--Hardy, under favorable conditions, throughout New England. Prefers a rich, moist soil near water, in shade; but grows well in almost any soil when once established, many young plants failing to start into vigorous growth. Occasionally grown by nurserymen, but more readily obtainable from northern collectors of native plants.

1. Winter buds. 2. Flowering branch. 3. Sterile flower. 4. Fertile flower with part of the perianth removed. 5. Fruiting branch.

=Acer Negundo, L.=

Negundo aceroides, Moench. Negundo Negundo, Karst.

BOX ELDER. ASH-LEAVED MAPLE.

=Habitat and Range.=--In deep, moist soil; river valleys and borders of swamps.

Infrequent from eastern Ontario to Lake of the Woods; abundant from Manitoba westward to the Rocky mountains south of 55 deg. north latitude.

Maine,--along the St. John and its tributaries, especially in the French villages, the commonest roadside tree, brought in from the wild state according to the people there; thoroughly established young trees, originating from planted specimens, in various parts of the state; New Hampshire,--occasional along the Connecticut, abundant at Walpole; extending northward as far as South Charlestown (W. F. Flint in lit.); Vermont,--shores of the Winooski river and of Lake Champlain; Connecticut,--banks of the Housatonic river at New Milford, Cornwall Bridge, and Lime Rock station.

South to Florida; west to the Rocky and Wahsatch mountains, reaching its greatest size in the river bottoms of the Ohio and its tributaries.

=Habit.=--A small but handsome tree, 30-40 feet high, with a diameter of 1-2 feet. Trunk separating at a small height, occasionally a foot or two from the ground, into several wide-spreading branches, forming a broad, roundish, open head, characterized by lively green branchlets and foliage, delicate flowers and abundant, long, loose racemes of yellowish-green keys hanging till late autumn, the stems clinging throughout the winter.

=Bark.=--Bark of trunk when young, smooth, yellowish-green, in old trees becoming grayish-brown and ridgy; smaller branchlets greenish-yellow; season's shoots pale green or sometimes reddish-purple, smooth and shining or sometimes glaucous.

=Winter Buds and Leaves.=--Buds small, ovate, enclosed in two dull-red, minutely pubescent scales. Leaves pinnately compound, opposite; leaflets usually 3, sometimes 5 or 7, 2-4 inches long, 1-1/2-2-1/2 inches broad, light green above, paler beneath and woolly when opening, slightly pubescent at maturity, ovate or oval, irregularly and remotely coarse-toothed mostly above the middle, 3-lobed or nearly entire; apex acute; base extremely variable; veins prominent; petioles 2-3 inches long, enlarging at the base, leaving, when they fall, conspicuous leaf-scars which unite at an angle midway between the winter buds.

=Inflorescence.=--April 1-15. Flowers appearing at the ends of the preceding year's shoots as the leaf-buds begin to open, small, greenish-yellow; sterile and fertile on separate trees,--the sterile in clusters, on long, hairy, drooping, thread-like stems; the calyx hairy, 5-lobed, with about 5 hairy-stemmed, much-projecting linear anthers; pistil none: the fertile in delicate, pendent racemes, scarcely distinguishable at a distance from the foliage; ovary pubescent, rising out of the calyx; styles long, divergent; stamens none.

=Fruit.=--Loose, pendent, greenish-yellow racemes, 6-8 inches long, the slender-pediceled keys joined at a wide angle, broadest and often somewhat wavy near the extremity, dropping in late autumn from the reddish stems, which hang on till spring.

=Horticultural Value.=--Hardy throughout New England; flourishes best in moist soil near running water or on rocky slopes, but accommodates itself to almost any situation; easily transplanted. Plants of the same age are apt to vary so much in size and habit as to make them unsuitable for street planting.