6 



pleasure to towa walks and country rambles. When 

 a good example of some tree is found it should be 

 carefully watched from the earliest warming up of 

 its blood, so to speak, by the spring sun, through 

 all its varying phases of bursting buds, flowering, 

 fruiting and the falling of its leaves ; for even ever- 

 greens drop their leaves at certain times, until the 

 winter state is reached. In this way and only thus 

 can one be familiarly acquainted with our trees to 

 know them anywhere and any time at sight. Meth- 

 od in observation is thus acquired which can be ap- 

 plied to other things in life. 



By this out-of-door study much more satisfactory 

 results will be obtaiued than by merely trusting to fit 

 the leaves or flowers or fruit, it may be, of the tree 

 to some book description ; but book descriptions 

 and good plates are valuable aids, although nature never 

 will confine herself to the descriptions and plates which 

 must be typical rather than universal in their scope. 



Some of the best books to aid the student will be 

 found in our Public Library in Salem. They include, 

 — Emerson's Trees of Massachusetts, in two volumes 

 with many colored plates ; Dame and Brooks' Typical 

 Elms and Other Trees in Massachusetts, which re- 

 produces from photographs some of our noblest speci- 

 mens of native and introduced trees ; Newhall's Trees 

 of Northeastern America, which gives outlines of the 

 leaves of all of our trees ; Forests of United States, 

 being the ninth volume of reports of the tenth census 

 by Prof. C. S. Sargent, and his greater work, Silya 

 of North America, now in the course of publication. 



There are other books and short papers which will 

 be of interest to those looking up the trees, includ- 



