It is found growing wild along river banks from New Brunswick to Florida, and it is frequently planted in cities and towns. [Sidenote: Striped Maple; Moosewood _Acer pennsylvanicum_] _A small tree, with smooth green shoots and a light green bark striped with white. The leaf-scars are opposite, and encircle the stem, and are conspicuously ridged, with two raised lines above. Smooth bud-scales, silver white leaves folded within the bud._ The moosewood is a beautiful little tree at all times, but in winter when its large leaves have fallen and the wonderful coloring of its trunk and stems is no longer concealed by foliage, one can fully appreciate its color, delicate branches and smooth stems. The trunk is an exquisite shade of green, smooth, with occasional stripes of white, and the stems and buds are also smooth and a rich rose in color. This tree is too small for practical use, but its æsthetic qualities should cause it to be more generally planted in our parks and gardens than it is. The name moosewood was given to it by the country people in Maine, as the moose in the woods invariably strip it for the sweet juice in the tender young shoots in winter, when there is little for them to eat. The Latin name _Acer pennsylvanicum_—Pennsylvanian maple—was given to it by Linnæus. The moosewood is found throughout the North Atlantic States growing in rich woods under taller trees. [Sidenote: Mountain Maple _Acer spicatum_] This is a shrub about eight feet high, found commonly in the mountains and hills of New England, and like the moosewood seldom found growing out of the forest. It is easily distinguished by its gray bark and pink stems covered with a delicate gray bloom, and the clusters of dried fruit left hanging on the stems. _Acer spicatum_—spiked maple—refers to the spike-like clusters of flowers. [Sidenote: Ash-leaved Maple; Box Elder _Acer negundo_] _A small or medium-sized tree with yellowish green or reddish brown smooth stems and opposite V-shaped, narrow leaf-scars. The buds are gray and downy and covered with two pairs of scales._ This tree is found wild in Vermont and Pennsylvania, southward and westward in lowland woods, and is more or less cultivated throughout New England. [Illustration: MOOSEWOOD MAPLE _Acer pennsylvanicum_ Page 27 ] It is not long-lived and has small practical value, as the wood is not strong, and the sap yields only a small quantity of sugar. The Latin name, _negundo_, is meaningless and its origin is unknown. [Sidenote: Norway Maple _Acer platanoides_] _A tall tree, with a round head and closely fissured bark. The buds are large, round, and a dull reddish brown color. Coarse twigs and opposite leaf-scars. Distinctive characteristic is the white juice which comes after cutting off a bud._