TREES AND SHRUBS OF NANTUCKET 

 Key for Identification based chiefly upon Leaf Characters. 



Identification keys unlock the names of the 

 species included. Perhaps they might better be con- 

 sidered a collection of sign-boards set at successive 

 forkings of the road. At any fork of the road one 

 makes a choice of roads and later signs on the' road not 

 taken are of no interest. Likewise, in an identification 

 key, when a choice is made from two or more balanced 

 statements, only those subdivisions under the choice 

 made are to be considered. 



The tree names to which the key leads are given 

 in two forms: the common or English name and the bi- 

 nomial or Latin name. The binomial includes first, the 

 name of the group or ienus of closely related plants; 

 second, the name of the species or member of the genus. 

 The name of the genus, the generic name, is a noun; that 

 of the species, the specific name, is generally an ad- 

 jective and follows the noun. 



It is worth while to become familiar with the 

 binomials. Whereas the common names may be only locally 

 known, the binomials are known around the world. They 

 may be pronounced with English sounds for the letters 

 but should be divided into as many syllables as there 

 are vowels or diphthongs in the word. A single conson- 

 ant between vowels begins the following syllable. 



The authorities for the nomenclature used in the 

 following pages are Gray's Manual of Botany, 7th Edition 

 for all plants therein included and Render's Manual of 

 Cultivated Trees and Shrubs, 2nd. Edition. Due 'to re- 

 cent changes in the rules of nomenclature and to the 

 study of type specimens, many changes in these botanical 

 names have been proposed and will be adopted when new 

 editions of the plant manuals are published. Since it 

 may be some time before they appear, it is thought best 

 to use here the familiar names that can be found in 

 readily available works. 



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