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[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,
are included in the descriptions as an assistance in identification. The
natural range of the forest trees, and the regions where they abound in
commercial quantities, are outlined according to the latest and best
authorities. Estimates of present and future supply are offered, where
such exist that seem to be authoritative. The trees are given the common
and the botanical names recognized as official by the United States
Forest Service. This lessens misunderstanding and confusion in the
discussion of species whose common names are not the same in different
regions, and whose botanical names are not agreed upon among scientific
men who mention or describe them. The forests of the United States
contain more than five hundred kinds of trees, ranging in size from the
California sequoias, which attain diameters of twenty feet or more and
heights exceeding two hundred, down to indefinite but very small
dimensions. The separating line between trees and shrubs is not
determined by size alone. In a general way, shrubs may be considered
smaller than trees, but a seedling tree, no matter how small, is not
properly called a shrub. It is customary, not only among botanists, but
also among persons who do not usually recognize exact scientific terms
and distinctions, to apply the name tree to all woody plants which
produce naturally in their native habitat one main, erect stem, bearing
a definite crown, no matter what size they may attain.

The commercial timbers of this country are divided into two classes,
hardwoods and softwoods. The division is for convenience, and is
sanctioned by custom, but it is not based on the actual hardness and
softness of the different woods. The division has, however, a scientific
basis founded on the mechanical