Of the Angiosperms which reach the dignity of trees, the Atlantic forest possesses a variety and abundance not exceeded elsewhere in the world. The most characteristic examples are the maples, elms, oaks, hickories, walnuts, chestnuts, ashes, basswoods, birches, tulip-trees, magnolias, liquidambar, tupelos, sycamores, etc., nearly all of which are represented by a number of species or varieties and vast numbers of individuals. While this diversity is found throughout the forests of the east-central part of the continent, certain regions are characterized by the abundance and large size of the trees belonging to one or to a few genera, so that a striking change is met with as one travels in any direction. The maples and elms reach their greatest size and abundance at the north, especially in New England, and thence westward to the Mississippi Valley, where they are the favourite shade-trees of villages and farms. In regions where the forests have been removed choice specimens of these trees have frequently been saved or subsequently planted, and standing alone, without competition and fully exposed to the light, reach great perfection of form and a high degree of beauty. The oaks are represented by a large number of species and varieties throughout the entire Atlantic forest, but reach their largest size and greatest abundance, both of species and individuals, in central and southern portions of the eastern United States. The same may be said also of the hickories, except that the maximum in reference to size, number of species, and abundance is attained in the region of the Ozark Hills. The tulip-tree, so named from the profusion of showy yellow blossoms it bears, is large and wide-spreading, with broad, dark-green leaves, and has the centre of its habitat in Kentucky, where many magnificent examples occur along the fences separating the broad meadows and rich pastures of the region of the blue grass, but thrives also from the Atlantic coast westward to beyond the Mississippi, and from Ontario on the north nearly to the Gulf of Mexico on the south. Not only is the tulip-tree an ornament and a blessing on account of its flower-laden branches and dense shade, but its white, even-grained wood is of great value.