PREFACE 5 



The size of the illustration as compared with the specimen of 

 plant is indicated by a fraction near it ; i indicates that the 

 drawing is one fourth as long as the original, I that it is nat- 

 ural size, etc. The notching of the margin is reduced to the 

 same extent ; so a margin which in the engraving looks about 

 entire, might in the leaf be quite distinctly serrate. The only 

 cases in which the scale is not given are in the cross-sections 

 of the leaves among the figures of coniferous plants. These 

 are uniformly three times the natural size, except the section 

 of Araucaria imbricata, which is not increased in scale. 



The author has drawn from every available source of infor- 

 mation, and in the description of many of the species no attempt 

 whatever has been made to change the excellent wording of 

 such authors as Gray, London, etc. 



The ground covered by the book is that of the wild and cul- 

 tivated trees found east of the Rocky Mountains, and north of 

 the southern boundary of Virginia and Missouri. It contains 

 not only the native species, but all those that are successfully 

 cultivated in the whole region ; thus including all the species 

 of Ontario, Quebec, etc., on the north, and many species, both 

 wild and cultivated, of the Southern States and the Pacific 

 coast. In fact, the work will be found to contain so large a 

 proportion of the trees of the Southern States as to make it 

 very useful in the schools of that section. 



Many shrubby plants are introduced ; some because they oc- 

 casionally grow quite tree-like, others because they can readily 

 be trimmed into tree-forms, others because they grow very tall, 

 and still others because they are trees in the Southern States. 



In nomenclature a conservative course has been adopted. 

 The most extensively used text-book on the subject of Botany, 

 " Gray's Manual," has recently been rewritten. That work in- 

 cludes every species, native and naturalized, of the region 

 covered by this book, and the names as given in that edition 

 have been used in all cases. 



