American
Forest Trees

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 structures of the two classes of woods, and there is little disagreement among either those who use forest products or manufacture them, or those who investigate the actual structure of the woods themselves, as to which belong in the hardwood and which in the softwood class.

Softwoods—The needleleaf species, represented by pines, hemlocks, firs, cedars, cypresses, spruces, larches, sequoias, and yews, are softwoods. The classification of evergreens as softwoods is erroneous, because all softwoods are not evergreen, and all evergreens are not softwoods. Larches and the southern cypress shed their leaves yearly. Most other softwoods drop only a portion of their foliage each season, and enough is always on the branches to make them evergreen. Softwoods are commonly called conebearers, and that description fits most of them, but the cedars and yews produce fruit resembling berries rather than cones. Though the needleleaf species are classed as softwoods, there is much variation in the absolute hardness of the wood produced by different species. The white pines are soft, the yews hard, and the other species range between. If there were no other means of separating trees into classes than tests of actual