4 FOREST-TREES OF THE UMTED STATES. 



W. Chapman, of Apalachicola, during a two months' cruise by schooner 

 on the west coast, among the various keys and inlets, and far into the in- 

 terior by the Caloosahatchee Eiver. Dr. Chapman is an old resident of 

 Florida, author of the " Flora of the Southern States," and better 

 acquainted with the vegetation of that region than any other person. 



A portion of the trees of Texas were obtained by Dr. S. B. Buckley, 

 of Austin, whose labors in developing the botany of that section are 

 well known ; and a portion were collected by Dr. F. G. Lindheiiner, a 

 veteran botanist, whose collections of Texas plants, made many years 

 ago, enrich the principal herbaria of the country. 



In Utah, Mr. L. F. Ward, botanist of the survey of the Colorado 

 Eiver by Messrs. Powell and Thompson, made the collection of the trees 

 of that region. 



The trees of the high sierras of California and Nevada were procured 

 by Mr. J. G. Lemmon, of Sierra County, California. The magnificent 

 conifers of that region are represented by large wedge-shaped sections 

 of trees from 4 to 7 feet in diameter, the preparation of which cost a 

 great amount of toil and expense. The immense trees had to be 

 felled, and the desired sections removed by sawing and splitting with 

 wedges until the portions were reduced to proper size. 



The trees of the Pacific slope in California were collected by Mr. G. 

 E. Vasey, with valuable aid and assistance from Dr. A. Kellogg, of San 

 Francisco, Dr. J. G. Cooper, and others. 



Dr. Edward Palmer made the collection for the southern portion of 

 California, Arizona, and Southern Utah. 



Mr. A. J. Dufur, Centennial Commissioner for Oregon, collected the 

 peculiar trees of that State. 



After the woods were received at Washington, they were taken to a 

 mill and reduced to the uniform length of two feet ; then each section 

 was divided by sawing longitudinally into two pieces, which were planed 

 on the sawed surface, one arranged to show the outer or bark surface 

 and the other to show the grain of the wood, its color, density, &c. 



The corresponding botanical specimens for each species are displayed 

 in frames arranged in the immediate vicinity of the trees to which they 

 belong. By this means, an intelligent view of the appearance and prop- 

 erties of every species of the trees of the countrymay be obtained. 



Great difficulty was experienced in deciding upon the limitations of 

 height and size which should characterize a tree. It is well known that 

 certain plants which are only shrubs in some places become large trees 

 in other places; sometimes the difference depending on climate and some- 

 times on other circumstances. Thus, Magnolia glauca, or W^hite Bay, 

 grows and matures its flowers and fruit in some portions of Massachu- 

 setts, where it attains only the size of a large shrub. It, however, 

 steadily increases in size in situations farther south, until in Georgia 

 and Florida it attains the size of a large tree. In some places, the same 

 plant appears as a shrub or a tree, under different circumstances, in 

 closely contiguous localities. Dr, Chapman, who made the collection of 

 the trees of South Florida, says: "I was much disappointed in the size 

 of most of the forest growth in that region. A peculiarity of these 

 tropical trees is, that for miles they occur to you as mere shrubs, when 

 at some other locality you find them lofty trees." As a general rule, I 

 have not admitted into the collection any tree which does not, under 

 favorable circumstances, attain a height of 20 feet and a diameter of 4 

 inches. Yet, in a few cases, in order the more fully to illustrate a family, 

 a tree has been admitted which would fall below that standard. The 



