Maple leaf

“ Clean-cut, refined, strong, and healthy in every detail, the silver maple is a thing of beauty and might truly be called the acme of perfection in tree life. Its name is derived from the fact that the under side of the leaf is silvery white. The upper side being dark green gives a beautiful effect when the wind stirs the foliage, which as a whole has the grace and drooping effect of the American elm. ”

“ These fissures reach two-thirds of the way through the leaf blade, and each lobe is cleft along its sides, into many irregular bays and capes. These leaves are always silvery white beneath in summer, and they turn to yellow in the autumn.
In late May the pairs of winged keys hang on short stems. Each key is about two inches long, fuzzy green, until ripe, twice the length of the smooth keys of the red maple, which are ripening at the same time.
It is good fun to lie under a maple tree, and watch the seeds as they fall. If the wind is strong, they shower down like rain. ”

“ And this is here stronger than the others, and grows into a branch which is considerably out of the axil, while the lower and smaller ones commonly do not grow at all. In other cases three buds stand side by side in the axil, as in the Hawthorn, and the Red Maple (Fig. 79.) If these were all to grow into branches, they would stifle each other. But some of them are commonly flower-buds: in the Red Maple, only the middle one is a leaf-bud, and it does not grow until after those on each side of it have expanded the blossoms they contain. ”

“ When you see a tree with a leaf that would lie in a three to five inch circle, but that is cut down part way into five lobes, you would be safe in thinking that tree a maple. The lobes of the red maple are sharply notched and parted. In the sugar or rock maple, the leaf lobes and partings are more rounded. It is a darker, smoother leaf, too, and grows more thickly on an evenly balanced, round-headed tree. The red maple has straggling branches, and the leaves are thin so light sifts through them, giving the tree an airier look than any other maple. ”

“ Boys and girls may not know that leaves "work;" yet all through the long summer days when you have been playing in the shade of some old maple, the leaves over your head have been very busy. Uncle John says that each leaf is a "starch factory," and this is true. Starch is necessary for plant food and it is manufactured in the leaves. The green leaves and stems are the machinery, which is run by sunlight. Look at a large branch of maple and see how the leaves are arranged to catch every sunbeam. ”

“ Hence, when buying black maple trees from a nurseryman you may receive the sugar maple. Those who distinguish the two species agree that the black maple is the more desirable tree for shade tree planting. The black and sugar maple are the two most desirable trees for shade tree planting in Indiana. They are long lived, have a very desirable form, beautiful foliage, a long leaf period, and are quite free from disease and insect injury. ”

“ It requires no great exercise of imagination to understand how a lobed leaf, by deepening the sinuses between the lobes, might become a compound leaf in the process of evolution. There may be no visible evidence that the box elder’s leaf reached its present form by that process, but there is another maple which is at the present time developing a compound leaf in that way, or seems to be doing so. ”

“ I roll a leaf in my hand and find it still spicy. A bush looks handsomer, I believe, if it is known to smell good. The same thought came to me a week ago while I was [124] admiring the sassafras leaves. They were then just at the point of ripeness. Now they have turned to a dead brown. The maple’s way is in better taste—to shed its leaves while they are still bright and fresh. They are under my feet now, a carpet of red and yellow.
One of the oddest bits of fall coloration (I cannot profess greatly to like it) is the ghostly white—greenish white—of Roxbury waxwork leaves. ”

“ The soft maple or silver maple (see illustration, page 199) has a white-lined leaf, cleft almost to the midrib and each division again deeply cut. It is quick and ready to grow, and has been widely planted as a street tree, especially in prairie regions of uncertain rainfall. It is one of the poorest of trees for street planting, because it has a sprawling habit and weak brittle wood. The heavy limbs have great horizontal spread, and are easily broken by ice and windstorms. When planted on streets, they require constant cutting back to make them even safe. ”

“ The ash her purple drops forgivingly
And sadly, breaking not the general hush;
The maple-swamps glow like a sunset sea,
Each leaf a ripple with its separate flush;
75All round the wood's edge creeps the skirting blaze
Of bushes low, as when, on cloudy days,
Ere the rain falls, the cautious farmer burns his brush. ”

“ Yet, how can we be sure of this{89} when those leaves which grow side by side on the same tree vary so in their autumnal tints?
Here upon a maple I find leaves that are still green, while others just beside them are scarlet. From the hilltop those maples which show the fieriest flame are the ones that on close inspection show leaves where the green and red mingle either in the same leaf or contiguous leaves. ”

“ It is hardy and has few insect pests, and its value is enhanced by the abundant yield of rich sap.
As a commercial tree it has few superiors; the wood is hard and durable and takes a high polish. It is used for flooring, furniture, boat building, for the wooden parts of machinery and tools, and for making shoe-pegs and shoe lasts. As fuel maple wood is surpassed only by hickory.
MAPLE LEAVES CLASS-ROOM LESSON
The pupils bring to the class leaves of the sugar maple. Each pupil is provided with a leaf and makes direct observations under the guidance of the teacher. ”

“ Flowers typically polygamous, occasionally with perfect flowers, small, forming dense clusters from separate buds before leaf expansion, conspicuous because of the red to orange coloration. Fruit twin samaras 10 to 20 mm long.
Var. drummondii: Leaves larger than typical red maple, usually broader than long; 3 to 5 lobes or occasionally scarcely lobed, margins coarsely toothed, conspicuously glaucous below, usually permanently tomentose. Fruit samaras 4 to 5 cm long.
55
Red Maple/Acer rubrum
56 Black Tupelo ”

“ How is one to live, with a crack in his sides?”
But the maple seed was wrong. He did [320] not die. An unsuspected, mysterious strength sustained him. His roots found food in the brown earth, and he lifted up a slender stem into the pure sunlight and warm air. Through spring, summer, autumn and winter, year after year, this lived and grew, until the tiny sapling had become a beautiful tree, with spreading branches. ”

“ The red maple is a lover of swamps. It thrives, however, on hillsides, if the soil be moist; and is planted widely in parks and along village streets. In beauty it excels all other maples. In early spring its swelling buds glow like garnets on the brown twigs (see illustrations, pages 198-199) . The opening flowers have red petals, and the first leaves, which accompany the early bloom, are red. In May the dainty flat keys, in clusters on their long, flexible stems, are as red as a cock's comb, and beautiful against the bright green of the new foliage. ”

“ Who does not know of the maples that are all around us? Yet who has seen the commonest of them bloom in very early spring, or watched the course of the peculiar winged seed-pods or "keys" that follow the flowers? The white or "silver" maple of streets or roadsides, the soft maple of the woods, is one of the most familiar of American trees. Its rapid and vigorous growth endears it to the man who is in a hurry for shade, and its sturdy limbs are the joy of the tree-butcher who "trims" them short in later years. ”

“ Of the broad-leaved, deciduous trees which grow near the coast, the white maple (Acer macrophyllum) is the most beautiful and useful. It grows and decays rapidly,—the mature tree attaining to the height of eighty feet, and a diameter of six feet; then decaying from the centre outward, lets its branches die and fall off, w T hile from the root other new trunks spring up and attain a considerable size in four or five years. The wood has a beautiful grain, and is valuable for cabinet manufactures, taking a high polish. The foliage is handsome, being very broad and of a light green. ”

“ But it has long been wooed by the air and the water, by moss and lichen; the years have lent it beauty, softened its curves, rounded its angles and brought it the richness of age.
Boulders are sometimes clothed with a larger growth. I have in mind one, from whose apex springs a maple at least half a century old. It lies at the head of a swamp, and in autumn this tree is always one of the first to turn. In August when the tupelos show signs of change, the maple is already glowing with color. ”

“ The red maple (Acer rubrus) , another species, is very bright when the leaves are changing, but it gives no sugar."
"Then I will not let it grow in my garden, nurse!"
"It is good for other purposes, my dear. The settlers use the bark dyeing wool; and a jet black ink can be made from it, by boiling down the bark with a bit of copperas, in an iron vessel; so you see it is useful. The bright red flowers of this tree look very pretty in the spring; it grows best by the water-side, and some call it 'the swamp-maple.'"
This was all Mrs. Frazer could tell Lady Mary about the maple-trees. ”

“ They are frequently as tall and thick, as the best of our fir trees. The seed stays on them till spring, but in the middle of April the pods open and shed the seeds. Query, Whether they are not ripe before that time, and consequently sooner fit for sowing? This American maple is remarkable for its quick growth, in which it exceeds all other trees. There are such numbers of them on the low meadows between Philadelphia and the ferry at Gloucester, on both sides of the road, that in summer time you go as it were through a shady walk. ”

“ But in a greenhouse they do not grow very large. In hot countries they sometimes reach a height of 150 feet. The bud at the top must not be broken off, else the tree will die; for, unlike Northern trees, palms do not branch, but continue always to grow straight up. As the leaves become old, they drop off, leaving curious scars on the trunk. New leaves grow one at a time from the apex. A maple-tree branches in all directions, and you may pinch off its buds anywhere without interrupting its growth. ”

“ Among the North American species there are several that grow to splendid dimensions in their native forest. One of the most distinct is the red maple (A. rubrum) , a beautiful object in spring when it bears flowers profusely, which, in some varieties, are of a charming red colour. There are a few specimens in England of the well-known sugar maple (A. saccharum) , but it seldom thrives in this country, though it has been frequently tried since its introduction, according to Loudon, in 1735. ”

“ It is the maples that first light up our woods with these flickering fires. No country of the old world has trees that make such a wonderful color show as our maples. Their leaves are never of one tint, but are mottled and shaded, from lemon yellow to orange, flame-red and crimson. You know the thin-leafed red maple sifts sunlight. To look up through one, in the fall, is like looking through a splendid stained glass window of a church.
The oaks show no yellow, and the leaves are of a strong solid color. ”

“ The flowers appear in the spring before the leaves, in dense clusters, and are of a greenish-yellow color. The fruit ripens in late spring. It consists of a pair of winged seeds or “keys” with wings 1 to 2 inches long on slender, flexible, threadlike stems about an inch long.
The wood is soft, weak, even-textured, rather brittle, easily worked, and decays readily when exposed. It is considerably used for boxboards, furniture, veneers and fuel.
The red maple, or swamp maple, Acer rubrum L., has leaves deeply lobed with the lobes sharply toothed. The autumn color is deep red. ”

“ It is characteristic of maple seeds to whirl rapidly while falling, and if a moderate wind is blowing, they glide considerable distances. They usually fly farther than the seeds of ash although their wings are no larger. The immense numbers of seeds borne by the sugar maple insure abundant reproduction in the vicinity of parent trees. The seeds sprout readily, but often so closely crowded together that most of them die the first few weeks. Not one in ten thousand can even become a large tree, and yet large trees are exceedingly abundant in extensive regions. ”

“ Now, in faint yellow, they grow attenuated and seem as if departing; they are losing their leaves and fading out of sight, as trees do in twilight. Yonder, over against that young growth of birch and evergreen, stood, all summer long, a perfect maple-tree, rounded out on every side, thick with luxuriant foliage, and dark with greenness, save when the morning sun, streaming through it, sent transparency to its very heart. ”

“ As the spring advances those pretty crimson leaves become dark green above and a light green on the under-side, and they lose the soft down which covered them, but even when fully out they are never so large as those of the Sycamore. When autumn draws near, with its cold winds and frosty nights, the Field Maple leaves change colour once more and become brilliant yellow; you will see them shining in the hedgerows like a bush of gold. ”

“ When I bring in a maple stick to put on my fire, I feel like caressing it a little. Its fiber is as white as a lily, and nearly as sweet-scented. It is such a tractable, satisfactory wood to handle—a clean, docile, wholesome tree; burning without snapping or sputtering, easily worked up into stovewood, fine of grain, hard of texture, stately as a forest tree, comely and clean as a shade tree, glorious in autumn, a fountain of coolness in summer, sugar in its veins, gold in its foliage, warmth in its fibers, and health in it the year round. ”