PREFACE. 



M.&.Y we hope that, with more detailed study of some 

 species of our familiar trees, the desire to know others 

 will arise ? " If we find ' our warmest welcome at 

 an inn,' ' writes Oliver Wendell Holmes, " we find 

 our most soothing companionship in trees among 

 which we have lived, some of which we may ourselves 

 have planted. We lean against them and they never 

 betray our trust ; they shield us from the sun and 

 from the rain ; their spring welcome is a new birth 

 which never loses its freshness ; they lay their 

 beautiful robes at our feet in autumn ; in winter 

 they ' stand and wait,' emblems of patience and of 

 truth, for they hide nothing, not even the little leaf- 

 buds which hint to us of hope, the last element in 

 their triple symbolism." 



In these pages we have not dealt with the 

 different kinds of trees in any particular order; but 

 at the close of the next series, which will complete 

 the work, we shall give a botanical synopsis of them 

 all in a scientific arrangement. 



