illustrate his book entitled, "Michigan Trees", which was published 

 by the University of Michigan in 1913. The state of Nebraska and 

 the author of this handbook greatly appreciate the privilege of using 

 these figures in a publication on Nebraska trees. The author is keenly 

 aware of the fact that this handbook would have been impossible at the 

 present time had Professor Otis not consented to loan his excellent 

 sketches. Professor T. J. Fitzpatrick, Curator of the Herbarium, of 

 the University of Nebraska, has also rendered valuable assistance in 

 the reading of manuscript and proof and in suggestions with reference 

 to various other data. 



THE NAMES OF TREES 



The first question asked about a tree is about the name of the 

 tree. This is in simple recognition of the great principle of systematic 

 biology that we must have names for the organisms about which we talk 

 or write. Now there is a fundamental, or at least a practical, difference 

 between the names of plants and the names of people. We have a 



I. Forms of Leaves 



Simple Pinnate 



Twice-pinnate 



Palmate or Digitate 



name for each individual human being, but not so for trees and other 

 plants. Imagine a farmer having a name for each of the thousands 

 of plants in his wheat field or a woodsman having a name for each 

 individual tree in his forest! The name of a given kind of plant covers 

 all of the individuals of that particular kind. All of the wheat plants 

 in the farmer's field have the same name, i. e. Triticum vulgare, and 

 ail of the white pine trees in the Michigan woodsman's forest have the 

 same name, Pinus strobus. Of course there are different kinds of 

 wheat and also different kinds of pines. All human beings have the 

 same name in this same sense, and that name is Homo sapiens. This 

 is the biological or scientific name for the human animal, so, after all, 

 the names of men and the names of trees are alike in their biological 

 application. But for numerous obvious reasons we have applied a name 

 to each human being and have forgotten the real or biological name. 



_4. 



