PREFACE. Vll 



Hies, I began to collect materials for their description; and 

 every important tree and shrub has been described from copious 

 notes taken under or near the growing plant itself. A point 

 with which I have each year been more and more struck, is the 

 beauty of our native trees and of the climbing vines and under- 

 growth associated with them. I have thrown aside much which 

 I had written upon this point. Utilitarian readers will perhaps 

 find too much still retained. My apology for not pruning more 

 severely must be found in my sincere conviction, that associa- 

 tions with the beauty of trees about our country homes enter 

 deeply into the best elements of our character ; and a hope 

 that what I have written may induce some of my readers 

 to plant trees, for the purpose of increasing the beauty and the 

 appearance of seclusion and quiet of the homes of their wives 

 and children. 



In the progress of the work, I found it necessary to curtail 

 very considerably what I had prepared, especially in regard to 

 the families and genera, as it was evident, if I should go on to 

 describe all the families with the same minuteness of detail even 

 as is given to the pines and oaks, I should write several volumes 

 instead of one. 



It was my original intention to add to the volume, in the 

 form of an appendix, a strictly scientific synopsis of the fam- 

 ilies, genera and species, with synonymes and references in the 

 usual form. But as the volume is already large, I have con- 

 cluded to suppress this, although, by so doing, I subject myself 

 to the charge of omitting or neglecting several things of impor- 

 tance. All omissions and defects will, however, I trust, at no 

 distant period, be much more than supplied. The Genera of New 

 England plants, by Prof. Gray, now, I understand, in a forward 

 state of preparation, and the Flora of New England, by that 

 most thorough botanist, Wm. Oakes, for which all the friends 

 of Natural Science have long been anxiously looking, will, 

 when they appear, place the botany of New England where 

 it should be ; and show the difference between the work of men 

 who are able to give the labor of years to the favorite pursuit of 

 their lives, and the hasty sketch of one whose heart, he is 

 obliged to confess, is, most of the year, wholly in other things, 



