In this volume I have tried to bring into convenient form for the use of students the information concerning the trees of North America which has been gathered at the Arnold Arboretum during the last thirty years and has been largely elaborated in my Silva of North America.

The indigenous trees of no other region of equal extent are, perhaps, so well known as those that grow naturally in North America. There is, however, still much to be learned about them. In the southern states, one of the most remarkable extratropical regions in the world in the richness of its arborescent flora, several species are still imperfectly known, while it is not improbable that a few may have escaped entirely the notice of botanists; and in the northern states are several forms of CratÆgus which, in the absence of sufficient information, it has been found impracticable to include in this volume. Little is known as yet of the silvicultural value and requirements of North American trees, or of the diseases that affect them; and one of the objects of this volume is to stimulate further investigation of their characters and needs.

The arrangement of families and genera adopted in this volume is that of Engler & Prantl’s Die NatÜrlichen Pflanzenfamilien, in which the procession is from a simpler to a more complex structure. The nomenclature is that of The Silva of North America. Descriptions of a few species of CratÆgus are now first published, and investigations made since the publication of the last volume of The Silva of North America, in December, 1902, have necessitated the introduction of a few additional trees described by other authors, and occasional changes of names.

An analytical key to the families, based on the arrangement and character of the leaves, will lead the reader first to the family to which any tree belongs; a conspectus of the genera, embodying the important and easily discovered contrasting characters of each genus and following the description of each family represented by more than one genus, will lead him to the genus he is trying to determine; and a similar conspectus of the species, following the description of the genus, will finally bring him to the species for which he is looking. Further to facilitate the determination, one or more letters, attached to the name of the species in the conspectus following the description of the genus, indicate in which of the eight regions into which the country is divided according to the prevailing character of the arborescent vegetation that species grows (see map forming frontispiece of the volume). For example, the northeastern part of the country, including the high Appalachian Mountains in the southern states which have chiefly a northern flora, is represented by (A), and a person wishing to learn the name of a Pine-tree or of an Oak in that region need occupy himself only with those species which in the conspectus of the genus Quercus or Pinus are followed by the letter (A), while a person wishing to determine an Oak or a Pine-tree in Oregon or California may pass over all species which are not followed by (G), the letter which represents the Pacific coast region south of the state of Washington.

The sign of degrees (°) is used in this work to represent feet, and the sign of minutes (') inches.

The illustrations which accompany each species and important variety are one half the size of nature, except in the case of a few of the large Pine cones, the flowers of some of the Magnolias, and the leaves and flower-clusters of the Palms. These are represented as less than half the size of nature in order to make the illustrations of uniform size. These illustrations are from drawings by Mr. Faxon, in which he has shown his usual skill and experience as a botanical draftsman in bringing out the most important characters of each species, and in them will be found the chief value of this Manual. For aid in its preparation I am indebted to him and to my other associates, Mr. Alfred Rehder and Mr. George R. Shaw, who have helped me in compiling the most difficult of the keys.

C. S. Sargent. Arnold Arboretum, Jamaica Plain, Mass.
January, 1905.