PREFACE 



''Every tree is beautiful, every grove is pleasant 

 and every forest is grand. The planting and care 

 of trees is exhilarating and a pledge of faith in 

 the future; but these testhetic features, though 

 elevating, are incidental. The people need wood. 

 They have had it in abundance and have been 

 prodigal in its use, as we are too often careless of 

 blessings which seem to have no end. Our his- 

 tory, poetry, and romance are intimately associated 

 with the woods. Our industries have developed 

 more rapidly because we have had plenty of cheap 

 timber. Millions of acres of bare hillsides that 

 produce nothing profitably should be growing trees." 

 These words of an American statesman are true 

 of other lands as well as of the United States; 

 and it is one of the objects of the present work to 

 draw attention to the individual beauty and interest 

 of each familiar species. In doing this the efforts 

 of the author have been most ably reinforced by 

 the work of the colour-artists, Messrs. W. H. J. Boot, 



