PREFACE. 



As the intention of this volume is to give an 

 unceremonious introduction of certain trees and 

 shrubs to our readers, who are occasionally in the 

 habit of meeting them w^ithout being acquainted, 

 in many instances, even with their names, bota- 

 nical language has been carefully avoided ; for 

 although it would often have saved many words, it 

 was considered that such terms would be intelligible 

 only to the botanist, and that the botanist was 

 precisely the last person to whom a description of 

 common trees or shrubs would be likely to be of 

 any use. One word only, as far as the writer re- 

 members, has been introduced from the botanical 

 vocabulary — the word pinnate ; and this occurs so 

 often, and requires so much circumlocution to 



