[Illustration: FIG. 25.--Leaf of Sugar Maple.]

Leaf: Deeply cleft and silvery under side. Fig. 29.

Form and size: A large tree with the main branches separating from the
trunk a few feet from the ground. The terminal twigs are long,
slender, and drooping.

Range: Eastern United States.

Soil and location: Moist places.

Enemies: The _leopard moth_, a wood-boring insect, and the
_cottony-maple scale_, a sucking insect.

[Illustration: FIG. 26.--The Sugar Maple.]

Value for planting: Grows too rapidly and is too short-lived to be
durable.

Commercial value: Its wood is soft, weak, and little used.

Other characters: The _bark_ is light gray, smooth at first and scaly
later on. The scales are free at each end and attached in the
center. The _flowers_ appear before the leaves in the latter part of
March or early April.

[Illustration: FIG. 27.--Tapping the Sugar Maple.]