Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 42124-h.htm or 42124-h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/42124/42124-h/42124-h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/42124/42124-h.zip) Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive/American Libraries. See http://archive.org/details/americanforestt00gibs Transcriber's note: Text printed in italics in the original work are represented here between underscores, as in _text_. Small capitals have been converted to ALL CAPITALS. More Transcriber's notes may be found at the end of this text. [Illustration: HENRY H. GIBSON] AMERICAN FOREST TREES by HENRY H. GIBSON Edited by Hu Maxwell Hardwood Record Chicago 1913 Copyright 1913 by Hardwood Record Chicago, Ill. The Regan Printing House Chicago. PREFACE The material on which this volume is based, appeared in Hardwood Record, Chicago, in a series of articles beginning in 1905 and ending in 1913, and descriptive of the forest trees of this country. More than one hundred leading species were included in the series. They constitute the principal sources of lumber for the United States. The present volume includes all the species described in the series of articles, with a large number of less important trees added. Every region of the country is represented; no valuable tree is omitted, and the lists and descriptions are as complete as they can be made in the limited space of a single volume. The purpose held steadily in view has been to make the work practical, simple, plain, and to the point. Trees as they grow in the forest, and wood as it appears at the mill and factory, are described and discussed. Photographs and drawings of trunk and foliage are made to tell as much of the story as possible. The pictures used as illustrations are nearly all from photographs made specially for that purpose. They are a valuable contribution to tree knowledge, because they show forest forms and conditions, and are as true to nature as the camera can make them. Statistics are not given a place in these pages, for it is no part of the plan to show the product and the output of the country’s mills and forests, but rather to describe the source of those products, the trees themselves. However, suggestions for utilization are offered, and the fitness of the various woods for many uses is particularly indicated. The prominent physical properties are described in language as free as possible from technical terms, and yet with painstaking accuracy and clearness. Descriptions intended to aid in identification of trees are given; but simplicity and clearness are held constantly in view, and brevity is carefully studied. The different names of commercial trees in the various localities where they are known, either as standing timber or as lumber in the yard and factory,