PREFACE. xi 



acteristic sweeping assertions which carries with it 

 a tiny grain of truth) that in time every plant and 

 tree would be drawn and there would be no further 

 need for botanies ! As a matter of fact, the latest 

 ajmroved scientific name of a tree is not an aid to 

 its identification, nor is the succinct technical phrase 

 constituting a botanical definition the last word that 

 may be said of a leaf. It often remains for the 

 photograph or the artist's brush to discover by a 

 glance of the eye those subtle truths which no words 

 can accurately measure or describe. 



I". Schuyler Mathews. 



El Fureidis, Blair, Campton, N. H., 

 August, 1910. 



