BOTANICAL GARDEN 



PREFACE. 



There is no lack of good manuals of botany in this country. 

 There still seems place for an adequately illustrated book of 

 convenient size for field use. The larger manuals, moreover, 

 cover extensive regions and sometimes fail by reason of their 

 universality to give a definite idea of plants as they grow 

 within more limited areas. New England marks a meeting 

 place of the Canadian and Alleghanian floras. Many southern 

 plants, long after they have abandoned more elevated situa- 

 tions northward, continue to advance up the valleys of the 

 Connecticut and Merrimac rivers, in which they ultimately 

 disappear entirely or else reappear in the valley of the St. 

 Lawrence ; while many northern plants pushing southward 

 maintain a more or less precarious existence upon the moun- 

 tain summits or in the cold swamps of New England, and 

 sometimes follow along the mountain ridges to the middle 

 or southern states. In addition to these two floras, some 

 southwestern and western species have invaded Vermont 

 along the Champlain valley, and thrown out pickets still 

 farther eastward. 



At or near the limit of a species, the size and habit of 

 plants undergo great change ; in the case of trees, to 

 which this book is restricted, often very noticeable. There 

 is no fixed, absolute dividing line between trees and shrubs. 

 In accordance with the usual definition, a tree must have a 

 single trunk, unbranched at or near the base, and must be at 

 least fifteen feet in height. 



Trees that are native in New England, or native in other 

 sections of the United States and thoroughly established in 

 New England, are described and, for the most part, figured. 

 Foreign trees, though locally established, are not figured. 



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