152 VERMONT AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



prove most interesting and most useful. A familiar acquaintance with the 

 common trees and other plants of the neighborhood, together with their 

 general characters and uses should be, and before long will be, an essentia 1 

 part of the education of every school boy and school girl. 



Each should learn to recognize so many of the trees as occur commonly 

 in his vicinity by leaf, fruit or bark. Nor will this be found very difficult 

 if some study is given to the following pages. 



The use of technical botanical terms has been avoided. It is realized 

 that this has in some cases been attended by a loss of precision, but the 

 larger gains must outweigh such minor losses. In all cases the drawings 

 are intended to supplement the keys and descriptions. They were care- 

 fully made to scale, and the reduction from natural size is indicated by the 

 accompanying fraction. Thus white pine x h indicates that the illustration 

 shows the parts of this pine one-half natural size. 



It is highly desirable that there should be greater uniformity in the 

 popular use of plant names and especially of the names of trees. In order 

 to bring this about Mr. G. B. Sudworth recently prepared a list of the pre- 

 ferred English names of the trees of the United States (U. S. Dept. Agr., 

 Div. Forestry, Bui. 17). The usage of this article is in accord with Sud- 

 worth' s recommendations and teachers are urged to follow it. Names, 

 other than the preferred one, which may be commonly used in the state 

 are included in parentheses. The Latin names are in general those of Sar- 

 gent's Sylva of North America. "Where these differ essentially from those 

 of the botanical manuals in common use in the state the synonyms are 

 added. 



Much help was received in the preparation of this article from Sargent's 

 Sylva of North America and from Emerson's Trees and Shrubs of Massachu- 

 setts. The first complete discussion of the occurrence and distribution of the 

 trees in the state is found in Oakes' list of Vermont plants, published in 

 Thompson's Natural History of Vermont in 1842. Prof. Perkins again sum- 

 marized the available information in his Flora of Vermont in 1 887. The forest 

 flora of the Connecticut valley is well discussed by Flint and Jesup in their 

 Trees and Shrubs of New Hampshire, 1891. The information furnished in 

 the above lists has been freely drawn upon. 



C. G. Pringle very thoroughly explored the forest areas of the Cham- 

 plain valley and of northern Vermont some twenty-five years ago. More 

 recently this work has been continued by several botanists. It is not ex- 

 pedient here to mention the contributions of all, but credit must at least be 

 given to those of President Ezra Brainerd regarding the flora of Addison 

 county, of Dr. A. J. Grout regarding that of Windham county and of W. W. 

 Eggleston regarding that of Rutland county. Mr. Elggleston has in addi- 

 tion made several trips through Bennington county and has also explored 

 parts of the extensive forest areas of Essex county, thus adding much to the 



