x PREFACE. 
time it is intended to convey pleasantly—nay, 
lovingly, as much information relating to its 
subject as people who lead busy lives are likely to 
have time to acquire. 
Every year at certain seasons—the periodical 
holiday seasons—hundreds of thousands of people 
leave the closeness and unhealthiness of their town 
occupations for a run into ‘the country.’ By a 
natural instinct they make into the woods where 
any are to be found. More than this, they delight 
to go into the thickest and densest part of the 
woods where Trees most abound. They de- 
lightedly look at the Trees and, perhaps, pick a 
leaf or two—admiring their greenness, their 
freshness, their beauty. Yet how many of these 
hundreds of thousands of town dwellers can 
identify the objects of their admiration? They 
know in a sort of general way, perhaps, half-a- 
dozen species; but even amongst these, if asked 
to describe the leaves of the most familiar, they 
would be unable to do so. The Author has been 
