Acer saccharum nigrum, (Michx. f.) Britt.

Form.—Height 75-90 feet, diameter 2-3½ feet; trunk and crown as in sugar maple.

Leaves.—Opposite, simple, 5-6 inches long, wider than long, 3-5-lobed, the lower lobes often reduced to a shallow rounded tooth, thick and firm, green and usually downy beneath.

Flowers.—May, with the leaves; monoecious, arranged in umbel-like corymbs, yellow, on slender, hairy pedicels.

Fruit.—Matures in autumn; paired samaras clustered on drooping pedicels, wings slightly diverging.

Bark.—Usually very dark gray, furrowed deeply.

Wood.—Hard, heavy, strong, close-grained, light yellow or brownish, with thin, lighter sapwood.

Range.—Quebec and western New Hampshire, southward and westward.

Distribution in West Virginia.—Less common than sugar maple, but often growing with it on low ground. Observed in the following counties: Lewis, Monongalia, Randolph, Tyler, Upshur, Webster and Wetzel.

Habitat.—Moist soil of river bottoms and slopes.

Notes.—This tree, which is classed as a sub-species of the common sugar maple, can scarcely be distinguished from the latter, except by the leaves which are thicker, usually dropping, less deeply lobed and slightly hairy beneath.