[AS.] A tree with a great variety of species, many of them found in North America, some in Europe and Asia, and a few in Japan. Some are small shrubs and others are large trees. The red maple, the sugar maple, and the white maple are common throughout the United States. The wood of the red maple is used for inlaying and for making stocks of rifles and fowling-pieces. The sugar maple yields a sap from which sugar is made, and the wood forms excellent fuel, and makes the best of charcoal. Some kinds, called curled and bird's-eye maple, because the grain is twisted or marked like birds' eyes, are used in cabinet-work. The wood of the common maple, a native of many parts of Europe and Asia, is fine-grained, compact, takes a high polish, and is much used by turners, and for carved work.