vasated sap of the leaves, and by others as the exudation of plant-lice (aphides.) Bees are so fond of it, that it has been recommended by some, to plant this species in the vicinity of places where they are kept, to afford them forage; but according to others, the bitterness of this substance on the leaves, prevents them from being attacked by insects. Properties and Uses. The wood of the Norway maple, in its young state, is white; but at a more advanced age, it becomes gray. It promises to be of more value in England, and adapted for a greater variety of purposes, than that of the Acer pseudo-platanus. It is close-grained, firm, heavy, and frequently exhibits those beautiful appearances in the direction and disposition of the fibres, for which the American "bird's-eye maple" is so highly prized. When dry, it weighs forty-three and a quarter pounds to a cubic foot; and in seasoning, it loses about one twenty-fourth part of its weight. It is easily worked, takes a fine polish, and absorbs and retains various kinds of dyes and colouring substances. From the sap, sugar has been made in Norway, Sweden, and Lithuania. This tree, however, does not produce so great a quantity of sap as the Acer saccharinum, or the European sycamore; but it contains more saccharine matter than the latter, and less than the former. Independently of the above-named uses, this tree has much to recommend its general culture, both in Europe and in America. In a suitable soil, it grows with rapidity and luxuriance, and even thrives upon soils of an inferior quality, provided they are not charged with too much moisture. Another recommendation it possesses, is its aptitude to withstand the effects of the sea-breeze, which it has proved to do upon the western coast of Scotland, as well as upon the shores of the Baltic, and eastern coast of Norway.* It may be propagated by seeds, by layering, or grafting. The seeds, when gathered, should either be sown immediately, or mixed with sand or earth, and kept moderately dry till spring. In either case, they will come up the first year. * Selby, British Forest Trees, p. 24. Rock Maple, Hard Maple, Bird's-eye Ma LINNEUS, Species Plantarum. HOOKER, Flora Boreali Americana. LOUDON, Arboretum Britannicum. TORREY AND GRAY, Flora of North America GERMANY. ITALY. OJIBWAY INDIANS. ple, Sugar Maple, Sugar-tree, Black BRITAIN AND ANGLO-AMERICA. Derivations. The specific name is derived from the Latin saccharum, sugar, having reference to the sugar contained in the sap. Engravings. Michaux, North American Sylva, pl. 42; Loudon, Arboretum Britannicum, i., figure 122, pp. 446 et 447, et v., pl. 31; and the figures below. Specific Characters. Leaves cordate, smooth, glaucous beneath, palmately 5-lobed; lobes acuminated, serrately toothed. Corymbs drooping, on short peduncles. Pedicels pilose. Fruit smooth, with the wings diverging.-Don, Miller's Dict. Description. HE Acer saccharinum is one of the most noble and majestic of American trees. In favourable situations it sometimes grows to a height of seventy or eighty feet, and from two to four feet in diameter; but usually it does not exceed an elevation of fifty or sixty feet, and a diameter of twelve or eighteen inches. The trunk is generally straight, though often studded with projections and excrescences. In all healthful and vigorous trees, the outward bark is light-coloured, by which they may readily be distinguished. When growing in open situations, with room to spread on every side, where all its branches are exposed to the free action of light, this tree is an object of great beauty. It somewhat resembles the English oak, in its outline, in the form of its trunk, and disposition of its branches, and in the dense and massy character of its foliage. The leaves are from three to five inches broad; but they vary in length, according to the age and vigour of the tree. They are opposite, attached by long petioles, palmated or unequally divided into five lobes, entire at the edges, of a bright-green above, whitish, and very pubescent at first, but later, minutely so. or nearly glabrous beneath; and except in the colour of the under surface, they greatly resemble the Norway maple. In autumn, after the appearance of the first frost, their colour changes from green to all shades of red, from the deepest crimson to light orange. The flowers, which appear in April and May, are small, of a pale greenish-yellow, and are suspended by slender, drooping peduncles. The seed is contained in two capsules, united at the base, and terminating in membraneous wings about an inch in length. It usually ripens in Pennsylvania and New York by the first of October, though the fruit attains its full size a month or six weeks earlier. Externally, the keys appear equally perfect; but one of them, Michaux informs us, is always empty. The fruit matures only once in two or three years. Variety. The Acer saccharinum has been confounded by some botanists with another tree so nearly allied to it, that it can only be regarded as a variety. From the dark hue of its leaves, it was very appropriately designated by Mr. Loudon, under the name of A. s. nigrum, (Acer nigrum, Michaux,) or Black Sugar Maple. According to Michaux, the leaves of this variety are pale-green beneath, the veins of the lower surface and petioles minutely villous-pubescent, and the wings of the fruit a little more diverging than those of the species, as indicated in the adjoining figure. "The leaves," he says, "are five or six inches long, and exhibit, in every respect, nearly the same conformation as those of the true sugar maple." "They differ from it," continues he, "chiefly in being of a darker green, and of a thicker texture; and in being somewhat more bluntly lobed. The tree is indiscriminately mixed with the common sugar maple, through extensive regions of country in New Hampshire, Vermont, and Connecticut; but is readily distinguished from it, by the smaller size it attains, and the darker colour of the leaves." When the tree stands alone, it naturally assumes a regular and agreeable form. In Canada and New England, it rarely exceeds fifty feet in height, with a diameter of fifteen or twenty inches; but in western New York, and in the immense valleys through which flow the great rivers of the west, it is common, and attains the full magnitude of the species. Geography and History. According to the elder Michaux, this tree is first seen a little north of Lake St. John, in Canada, near the forty-eighth degree of north latitude, which, in the rigour of its winter, corresponds with the parallel of about the sixty-eighth degree in Europe. It is nowhere more abundant than between the parallels of forty-three and forty-six degrees, comprising all, or a great part of Canada, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, the states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York, the true region assigned by nature for the growth of this tree. It is also found, but more sparingly, in almost every state in the union, particularly on the flanks of the entire range of the Alleghanies to their termination in Georgia. This species was introduced into England, in 1734, by Collinson, and since that time, it has been cultivated in the principal gardens throughout Europe. Count Wingersky is said to have planted a great number of trees on his estate in Moravia, and to have drawn off the sap from them at the age of twenty-five years, in order to make sugar. He succeeded in procuring a very good article ; but in consequence of depriving the trees of their sap every year, they became sickly, and soon afterwards died. The largest recorded tree of this species, in Europe, is at Wörlitz, in Saxony. At the expiration of sixty years after being planted, it was fifty feet high. The largest sugar maple in the neighbourhood of London, is at Purser's Cross, which, in 1835, had attained the height of forty-five feet. Several large trees of this species are found on Goat Island, at the falls of Niagara; but they are far inferior in size to myriads of others, in Canada, New England, and other parts of America. Soil, Situation, &c. The natural habitat of the Acer saccharinum is the steep and shady banks of rivers, which rise in mountainous regions, and in all elevated situations, where the soil is cold and humid, free, deep, and fertile, and not surcharged with moisture. When cultivated, the same soil is recommended as in the Acer platanoides; but as it is less hardy, the situation should be more shel-. tered. In Europe, it is always propagated by seeds, where its rate of growth varies from one to four feet per annum. In the United States it is either propagated from seeds, in nurseries, or is transplanted from the woods or fields, to the site where it is intended to remain. The age of this tree in America does not usually exceed two hundred years. Insects. Few insects or their larvæ seem to feed upon the leaves of the sugar maple, with the exception of the Apatela americana, described by Dr. Harris, in his Report on the Insects of Massachusetts injurious to Vegetation," and also figured and described in Smith and Abbot's "Insects of Georgia," under the name of Phalana aceris. The caterpillar of this insect eats the leaves of the various kinds of maple, as well as those of the elm and chesnut. They commence spinning in October or November, and come out from their webs or cocoons from April to July. The moths fly only in the night. But this fine tree suffers much from the attacks of the borers or larvæ of the Clytus speciosus, denoted by the accompanying figure. This insect is accurately described and figured in Say's "American Entomology;" and an account of its habits is given by Rev. L. W. Leonard, of Dublin, New Hampshire, in Harris' "Report." He discovered the insect in the beetle state, under the loosened bark of one of the trees, and traced the recent track of the larva, three inches into the solid wood. Dr. Harris says, "It is the largest known species of Clytus, being from nine to eleventenths of an inch in length, and three to four-tenths in breadth. It lays its eggs on the trunk of the maple in July and August. The grubs burrow into the 38 bark as soon as they are hatched, and are thus protected during the winter. In spring, they penetrate deeper, and form, in the course of the summer, long and winding galleries in the wood, up and down the trunk. In order to check their devastations, they should be sought for in the spring, when they will readily be detected by the saw-dust that they cast out of their burrows; and, by a judicious use of a knife and stiff wire, they may be cut out, or destroyed before they have gone deeply into the wood." Properties and Uses. The wood of the Acer saccharinum, when newly cut, is white, but after being wrought and exposed for some time to the light, it takes a rosy tinge. Its grain is fine and close, and when polished, its lustre is silky. It is very strong and heavy, but wants the property of durability, for which the English and American white oaks are so highly esteemed. The northern wood, when dry, weighs forty-six pounds to a cubic foot, but that grown south, weighs much less. When cut, and properly dried, it makes excellent fuel, which is equally esteemed by some, for that purpose, with the oak and hickory. When exposed to the alternations of moisture and dryness, it soon decays, and for this reason, it is not much used in civil and naval architecture. In Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and farther north, where the oak is not plentiful, the timber of this tree is substituted for it, in preference to that of the beech, the birch, or the elm. When perfectly seasoned, which requires two or three years, it is used for axletrees, spokes, runners of common sleds, mill-cogs, and for chairs, and cabinet-work. It is also sometimes used for the frames of houses, keels, and the lower frames of vessels, piles, and foundation pieces for mills, canal locks, and for many other purposes where strength is required, and the work is not exposed to the alternations of moisture and dryness. The wood of this tree exhibits several accidental forms in the arrangement of its fibre, of which cabinet-makers take advantage in manufacturing beautiful articles of furniture, such as bedsteads, writing-desks, and other fancy works, and for inlaying mahogany and black walnut, in bureaus, piano-fortes, etc. These forms or varieties may be classified and described as follows: 1. CURLED MAPLE. Erable gris ondulé, French. The undulations or medullary rays of this variety, like those of the red-flowered maple, are lustrous, and in one light appear darker, and in another lighter than the rest of the wood. Sometimes the zig-zag lines are crossed by beautifully coloured veins; but, unfortunately, the lustre of these shades disappear by long exposure to light and air. 2. BIRD'S-EYE MAPLE. Erable moucheté, French. This variety exhibits small whitish spots or eyes, not exceeding a tenth of an inch in diameter, sometimes occurring a little way apart, and at others contiguously disposed. The more numerous these spots, the more beautiful and valuable the wood. They are seen only in old trees, which are still sound, and appear to arise from an inflection of the fibres from the centres of their trunks towards the surface across the grain. To obtain the finest effect, the wood should be sawed as nearly as possible in a direction parallel with the concentric circles. In addition to the above-named varieties, two other kinds occur in the wens, or excrescences which grow on the trunk or roots of this tree, and like them, are covered with bark. The most valuable variety is known by the name of Variegated Maple-knob, or Loupe d'érable de couleurs variées, of the French. It presents an assemblage of shades, agreeably disposed, sometimes resembling Arabic characters, which renders the wood very appropriate for fancy works, and from its scarcity, it usually commands high prices. The other variety, known by the name of Silver-white Maple-knob, or Loupe d'érable blanc argenté, of the French, exhibits a silvery lustre by the arrangement of its fibres, and is highly prized for the same purposes as the preceding, although more common. The wood of this species is easily distinguished from that of the red-flowered maple, which it resembles in appearance, by its weight and hardness. There is besides, a very simple and certain test. A few drops of water saturated with copperas, (sulphate of iron,) being poured upon samples of different woods, that of the sugar maple turns greenish, and the white maple and the red-flowered maple change to a deep blue. The ashes of the sugar mapie are rich in the alkaline principle, and it has been asserted, that they furnish four-fifths of the potash exported from the United States to Europe. In the forges of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and places farther north where this tree grows, its charcoal is preferred to that of any other wood; and it is said to be one fifth heavier than that made from the same species in the middle and southern states. The extraction of sugar from this tree is a valuable resource in a new country where it abounds; but it is obvious that this mode of obtaining sugar is only destined for a certain stage in the progress of society, and eventually gives way to the sugar of commerce, produced by cane. For this reason, we shall not detail the process of its manufacture, as it cannot be regarded as a matter of |