PREFACE. 



Among the variety of useful and interesting productions abounding 

 in this vast continent, none claim our attention in a more eminent degree 

 than the indigenous trees of our forests. Independent of ornamenting the 

 earth and of furnishing us with timber and fuel, they arrest the progress of 

 impetuous and dangerous winds ; maintain the temperature of the air by 

 diminishing extreme cold, and regulating intense heat ; oppose the forma- 

 tion of ice, and shelter the earth from the scorching rays of the sun ; pro- 

 duce an abundance of water in the streams, and oppose a barrier to washing 

 away or undermining their banks ; preserve and enrich the soil on hills 

 and mountains ; discharge the electricity of the atmosphere ; and serve 

 as laboratories for purifying the air we breathe. 



The trees of our country recall the idea of it in the most forcible man- 

 ner, wherever we meet them ; and are often the first objects that attract 

 the attention of those who have been long absent from their native land, 

 and who, on their return, pour out their genuine effusions of joy on behold- 

 ing them. We are aware that many an American has sighed under the 

 shade of the banana for a sight at the village elm, the well-knoAvn oak, or 

 the unchanged pine of New England. We are told of a young Indian, 

 Pontaveri from Otaheite, who, amidst the splendor of Paris, regretting the 

 simple beauty of his native island, sprang forward at the unexpected sight 

 of a banana tree in the Garden of Plants, embraced it, while his eyes were 

 bathed in tears, and exclaiming with a voice of rapture...." Ah ! tree of my 

 native country !" seemed by a delightful illusion of sensibility, to imagine 

 himself, for a moment", transported to the land which gave him birth. 



In the United States, there are more than 140 species of forest trees, 

 which exceed 30 feet in height : in France, there are but 30 trees that attain 

 this size, of which 18 enter into the composition of the forests, and 7 only 

 are employed in building. Though vast tracts of our soil are still veiled 

 from the eye of day by primeval forests, the best materials for building are 

 nearly exhausted. And this devastation is now become so universal to 

 supply furnaces, glass houses, factories, steam engines, &c. with fuel, that, 

 unless some auspicious expedient offer itself, and means be seriously and 

 speedily resolved upon, for a future store, one of the most glorious and 





