PREFACE 



"DOOKS about trees, describing the character- 

 istics of individual species, are many. 

 Legends and folklore concerning trees have been 

 dug out of obscurity and delightfully retold. 



But there are few books as yet about the forest, 

 still fewer which try to tell the high-school scholar 

 and the " man in the street " about the forest. 



Moreover, I have tried to make a book which 

 is not local. It makes its diffident appeal to a 

 lover of trees anywhere from Nova Scotia to 

 California, from Hudson's Bay to The Ever- 

 glades, wherever there is tree life and forest-clad 

 country. 



It tries to avoid technical terms and phrases. 



And it follows a plan which it is hoped will 

 prove convenient to teachers, as well as the 

 general reader. 



"All the Nature books," I am told, "begin 

 with spring — and all the schools begin in 

 autumn." Hence a busy teacher is confronted at 

 the outset with the task of turning the whole book 

 " otherwise to." 



Bearing this in mind, I have begun with an 

 autumn chapter on the seed vessel and the seed. 



