PREFACE. 



> requisite information is given for an intelligent choice c 

 trees for ornamental purposes. 



The order and names of families follow, in the main, 

 -Engler and Prantl. In accordance with the general tendency 

 of New England botanists to conform to the best usage until 

 an authoritative agreement has been reached with regard to 

 nomenclature by an international congress, the Berlin rule^ 

 has been followed for genera, and priority under the genus 

 for species. Other names in use at the present day are given 

 as synonyms and included in the index. 



Only those common names are given which are actually 

 used in some part of New England, whether or not the same 

 name is applied to different trees. It seems best to record 

 what is, and not what ought to be. Common names that are 

 the creation of botanists have been disregarded altogether. 

 Any attempt to displace a name in wide use, even by one 

 that is more appropriate, is futile, if not mischievous. 



The plates are from original drawings by Mrs. Elizabeth 

 Gleason Bigelow, in all cases from living specimens, and 

 they have been carefully compared with the plates in other 

 works. So far as practicable, the drawings were made of life 

 size, with the exception of the dissected portions of small 

 flowers, which were enlarged. In this way, though not on 

 a perfectly uniform scale, they are, when reduced to the 

 necessary space, distinct in all their parts. 



So far as consistent with due precision, popular terms have 

 been used in description, but not when such usage involved 

 tedious periphrase. 



Especial mention should be made of those botanists whose 

 assistance has been essential to a knowledge of, the distri- 

 bution of species in the New England states : Maine, Mr. 

 M. L. Eernald ; New Hampshire, Mr. Win. F. Flint, 

 Report of Forestry Commission ; Vermont, President Ezra 

 Brainerd; Massachusetts, trees about Northampton, Mrs. 

 Emily Hitchcock Terry ; throughout the Connecticut river 

 valley, Mr. E. L. Morris; Rhode Island, Professor W. W. 

 Bailey, Professor J. F. Collins ; Connecticut, Mr. C. H. 

 Bissell, Mr. C. K. Averill, Mr. J. N. Bishop. Dr. B. L. 



