PREFACE TO PART VII. 



Part YII AMERICAN WOODS is a continuation of the woods of the 

 Pacific slope, and most of the woods represented in it were gathered at 

 the same time with those of Part YI the first installment of the 

 woods of this region and it was expected when that appeared that 

 Part YII could be brought out soon afterward. 



It is with great regret that unforeseen interruptions have prevailed 

 to delay its appearance until this date, but they were circumstances 

 which we confidently expect will not retard the sequence of the 

 remaining Parts of the series. 



For information aiding me in the collection of the woods of Part 

 YII, I wish to express my gratitude to Mr. Samuel B. Parish, Prof, 

 and Mrs. J. Gr. Lemmon, Mr. and Mrs. Brandigee and Miss Alice 

 Eastwood. I am under special obligation, too, to Mr. Chas. F. 

 Sonne, Prof. Chas. II. Shinn, Prof. Wm. K. Dudley and Mrs. J. 

 Morrow for material, with vouchers for identification, forwarded to 

 me since my return from the field; and to Pres. C. P. Huntington, of 

 the Southern Pacific Railroad Company, I am under great obligation 

 for courtesies extended which have very materially aided me in my 

 work. 



It is with special delight that I find myself able to include in Part 

 YII the sections of an endogenous wood, the Yucca arborescens, and 

 I feel that their appearance will be greeted with perhaps equal delight 

 on the part of our patrons. The only other endogenous woods with 

 which we have experimented, as yet, are. the Cabbage Palmetto (Sabal 

 palmetto), of the southeastern States and the Washington Palm ( Wash- 

 ingtonia fill/era) of California. With these we were unsuccessful in 

 making sections of sufficient strength to serve our purpose, but we 

 hope that future experiments may yet enable us to include those 

 species in AMERICAN WOODS, as their structure is most interesting. 



The Yucca sections we have found naturally strong enough to 

 enable us to mount them in the specimen-pages, excepting the trans- 

 verse, which we have reinforced by immersing them in shellac var- 



