PREFACE. Vil 
ities, I began to collect materials for their description; and 
every important tree and shrub has been described from copious 
notes taken under or near the growing plant itself. <A point 
with which I have each year been more and more struck, is the 
beauty of our native trees and of the climbing vines and under- 
growth associated with them. [ have thrown aside much which 
I had written upon this point. Utilitarian readers will perhaps 
find too much still retained. My apology for not pruning more 
severely must be found in my sincere conviction, that associa- 
tions with the beauty of trees about our country homes enter 
deeply into the best elements of our character; and a hope 
that what I have written may induce some of my readers 
to plant trees, for the purpose of increasing the beauty and the 
appearance of seclusion and quiet of the homes of their wives 
and children. 
In the progress of the work, I found it necessary to curtail 
very considerably what I had prepared, especially in regard to 
the families and genera, as it was evident, if I should go on to 
describe all the families with the same minuteness of detail even 
as is given to the pines and oaks, | should write several volumes 
instead of one. 
It was my original intention to add to the volume, in the 
form of an appendix, a strictly scientific synopsis of the fam- 
ilies, genera and species, with synonymes and references in the 
usual form. But as the volume is already large, | have con- 
cluded to suppress this, although, by so doing, I subject myself 
to the charge of omitting or neglecting several things of impor- 
tance. All omissions and defects will, however, I trust, at no 
distant period, be much more than supplied. The Genera of New 
England plants, by Prof. Gray, now, I understand, in a forward 
state of preparation, and the Flora of New England, by that 
most thorough botanist, Wm. Oakes, for which all the friends 
of Natural Science have long been anxiously looking, will, 
when they appear, place the botany of New England where 
it should be; and show the dillerence between the work of men 
who are able to give the labor of years to the favorite pursuit of 
their lives, and the hasty sketch of one whose heart, he is 
obliged to confess, is, most of the year, wholly in other things. 
