OPENING LEAVES 



" Thou, nature, art my goddess : to thy law 

 My services are bound: wherefore should I 

 Stand to the plague of custom ? " 



— Shakespeare. 



OUR field of observation in the following pages is 

 practically the entire Northeastern States. The 

 record is in no sense local, except as the chosen 

 background of the pictorial account is the most representa- 

 tive and extensive collection of our finest native and for- 

 eign growth, arranged for landscape effect, that is to be 

 found in the country — the famous Central Park, of New 

 York City. 



This small and definite area not only affords a splendid 

 concrete example of landscape vegetation for the thou- 

 sands annually traversing it, but is so illustrative of every 

 phase of hardy, deciduous, and evergreen growth at home 

 and abroad as to afford ample opportunity for discussing 

 the entire range of native vegetation in tree, shrub, and 

 vine, from Maine to North Carolina, and west to the 

 Mississippi, and the abundant decorative species from 

 Europe and Asia, that are now figuring so conspicuously 

 in all our private lawns and gardens. 



This is the first time that a description of all the trees, 

 shrubs, and vines in Central Park has been presented to 

 the public. The nearest approach to it was a botanical 



