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Maple

(Science: botany) a tree of the genus Acer, including about fifty species. A. Saccharinum is the rock maple, or sugar maple, from the sap of which sugar is made, in the united states, in great quantities, by evaporation; the red or swamp maple is a. Rubrum; the silver maple, a. Dasycarpum, having fruit wooly when young; the striped maple, a. Pennsylvanium, called also moosewood. The common maple of Europe is a. Campestre, the sycamore maple is a. Pseudo-platanus, and the Norway maple is a. Platanoides.

maple is much used adjectively, or as the first part of a compound; as, maple tree, maple leaf, etc. Birds-eye maple, Curled maple, varieties of the wood of the rock maple, in which a beautiful lustrous grain is produced by the sinuous course of the fibres. Maple honey, maple molasses, or maple sirup, maple sap boiled to the consistency of molasses. Maple sugar, sugar obtained from the sap of the sugar maple by evaporation.

Origin: as. Mapolder, mapulder, mapol; akin to Icel. Mopurr; cf. OHG. Mazzaltra, mazzoltra, g. Massholder.