[i] 



PREFACE. 



Duhamel's Treatise, which appeared in 1755, went a long way toward spreading 

 knowledge about trees and a desire to cultivate them. But since then we have 

 naturalized a number of foreign trees in France. Some excellent observations on 

 their cultivation have been published by M. Thouin in his instructions and by M. 

 Dumont-Courset in his Botanist-Cultivator. I believe, as I had suggested in a paper 

 published in 1814 that under the present circumstances with the government engaged 

 in planting along major highways, a treatise on forest trees would be useful. 

 Consequently I've selected from my collection of plants of France the descriptions of 

 those native or foreign trees with trunks between thirty and one hundred twenty feet high 

 that are used in civil construction and shipbuilding. 



(1) Report on the administration and management of forests by M. Jaume-Saint-Hilaire, Paris, at 

 Egron, rue desNoyers, n° 37; two pages printed in 8°. 



