PREFACE TO THE SERIES. 



The necessity of more generally diffused information concerning the 

 variety and importance of our forest trees is justification enough for 

 the appearance of this work, especially at this day, when the demands of 

 Forestry in this country are constantly more and more keenly felt. The 

 work was undertaken at the suggestion of my father, whose intense in- 

 terest in Forestry, and a kindred taste, at once gave me inspiration to the 

 work. It was entered upon with the expectation of his valuable com- 

 panionship and counsel during its progress, but, alas ! that I was destined 

 to have only at the outset, and, while I was then left ever to mourn the 

 loss of a kind father, companion and teacher, the reader must fail to find 

 in these pages that value aud finish which his mind would have given 

 them. 



Among the happiest pictures of my memory are those in which I see 

 my father's delight, as I would show to him, from time to time, my suc- 

 cessful progress in devising a way of making the sections for this work, 

 and if only for the happiness which its appearance would have caused 

 him, could he have lived until this day, I have felt duty-bound to go on 

 with it, even though left to do it alone. 



The work is the outgrowth of one, of somewhat similar plan, proposed 

 by my father some years since, but which he did not carry into effect. 

 Its design is primarily and principally to show, in as compact and 

 perfect a manner as possible, authentic specimens of our American woods, 

 both native and introduced. For that end three sections, respectively 

 transverse, radial and tangential to the grain (see Glossary), are made of 

 each timber, sufficiently thin to allow in a measure the transmission of 

 light, and securely mounted in well made frames. 



The three planes above mentioned show the grain from all sides, so to 

 speak, no plane being possible but that would be either one of them or 

 a combination of them. The difficulty, however, of cutting a great 

 number of sections exactly on those planes is obvious, so let it be under- 

 stood that the terms, " transverse/' "radial" and "tangential," are, in 

 many cases, only approximately exact in their application. 



My endeavor is to show, either in a part or all of the sections standing 

 to represent a species, both the heart and sap-wood, but with some woods 



