Dendrology 41 



Sylviculture is primarily an art and as such it is based on 

 a science. This science is Sylvics. Sylvics is the knowledge 

 of the sylvicultural characteristics of forest trees. It treats 

 of the life history of forest trees as individual species, or 

 of a tree, while sylviculture deals with a collection of trees 

 or with a forest. Before sylviculture can be practiced 

 with any intelligence, a knowledge of the requirements of 

 each species of tree, such as soil, moisture, climate, and 

 the like, must be secured, and' upon this sylviculture must 

 be based. Sylvics begins with a knowledge of the number 

 and kinds of our forest trees and their ready identification 

 as to genus and species wherever found. This has to do 

 with the simple botany of trees, their botanical character- 

 istics, similarities and differences, and is called Dendrology, 

 from dendron, meaning tree. Sylviculture should then, 

 properly, begin with a study of the tree flora (as in Chapter 

 IV) and be followed (as in Chapter V) with a discussion 

 of sylviculture. 



The scope of dendrology is large and includes much 

 that must be omitted here. The present treatment, 

 however, will include a study of sufficient distinguishing 

 characteristics of our common trees to enable any student 

 to identify such as come to his attention. 



Our trees fall very naturally into two great groups : — 

 Conifers, — meaning cone-bearing trees, such as the pines 

 and spruces. (Nearly all our conifers have needle- 

 shaped leaves, and with the exception of the larches 

 all our northern conifers are evergreen.) 

 Broadleaf trees, — meaning trees with broad leaves, such 

 as the elms and oaks. (All our northern broadleaf 

 trees have deciduous foliage, i.e. the leaves fall from 



