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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.