American Forest Trees

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Moisture in wood affects its strength, the dryer the stronger, at least within certain limits. Architects and builders carefully study the seasoning of timber, because it is a m...

The western white pine has entered many markets in recent years, but it is difficult to determine what the annual cut is. Statistics often include this species and the western y...

BRISTLECONE PINE (_Pinus aristata_) owes its name to the sharp bristles on the tips of the cone scales. It is known also as foxtail pine and hickory pine. The latter name is giv...

TABLE MOUNTAIN PINE (_Pinus pungens_). The French botanist, Michaux the younger, has been criticized for the statement which he made more than a hundred years ago that this spec...

TORREY PINE (_Pinus torreyana_), called del mar pine and Soledad pine, is an interesting tree from the fact that its range is so restricted that the actual number of trees could...

GRAY PINE (_Pinus sabiniana_), called also Digger pine because the Digger Indians formerly collected the seeds, which are as large as peanuts, to help eke out a living, is confi...

ALPINE LARCH (_Larix lyallii_) never grows naturally below an altitude of 4,000 feet, and near the southern border of its range it climbs to 8,000, where it stands on the brink...

This tree is called southern white cedar to distinguish it from northern white cedar or arborvitæ. When there is little likelihood of confusion, the name white cedar is applied...

Trunks are large but not shapely. They are generally fluted, and greatly swelled at the base. These deformities develop rather late in the tree’s life; at least, they are not pr...

Red spruce bears abundance of seeds, the best on the highest branches. The seeds are winged, and the wind scatters them. They germinate best on humus. In spruce forests, clumps...

MONTEREY CYPRESS (_Cupressus macrocarpa_). This tree has only one name and that is due to its place of growth on the shores of Monterey bay, California. Its range is more restri...

This tree’s name is justified by its appearance when growing at its best in the forests of the northwest Pacific coast. It is tall, shapely, and imposing. It often exceeds a hei...

During one hundred and ten years, from 1803 until the present time, botanists and others have proposed and rejected names for this tree. It has been called a fir, pine, and spru...

Redwood cones are one inch or less in length. They ripen in one season. Seeds are quite small, and are equipped with wings. The bark is thick, but is much thinner than the bark...

The annual sawmill output of western hemlock is about 170,000,000 feet. The largest market for it is in the region where it grows, and it is used as rough lumber for ranch purpo...

The possibilities of white oak are almost infinite. It is good for nearly anything for which any wood is used. It is not the best for everything, but does well for most. Hickory...

NETLEAF OAK (_Quercus reticulata_) will never attract lumbermen in this country, but sometime they may send to the Sierra Madre mountains of Mexico to procure it. In that region...

ENGELMANN OAK (_Quercus engelmanni_) occupies a restricted range in southwestern California where it is generally spoken of as a desert tree; but its rate of growth appears to b...

This tree is known as yellow chestnut oak, chinquapin oak, chestnut oak, pin oak, yellow oak, scrub oak, dwarf chestnut oak, shrub oak, and rock oak. It should not be confused w...

When a lumberman speaks of red oak he may mean any one of a good many kinds of trees, but when a botanist or forester uses that name he means one particular species and no other...

The acorns of this oak are bitter, and escape the mast hunters. Old stumps have little need to send up sprouts, for acorns keep the species alive. Yellow oaks are in no immediat...

The tree is often called red oak, particularly by lumbermen who cut it and send it to market with red oak. In Louisiana it is known as Spanish water oak, there being much resemb...

The uses to which pin oak is put must be considered in a general way because of the absence of exact statistics. The wood is not listed by the lumber trade under its own name, b...

PRICE OAK (_Quercus pricei_) is a California tree, supposed to be very local in its range, since it has not been found outside the drainage basin of a small stream in Monterey c...

Black gum weighs 39.61 pounds per cubic foot. It is very porous, but the pores are too small to be seen by the naked eye, and are diffused through the wood and form no distinct...

PALE-LEAF HICKORY (_Hicoria villosa_) is a small tree but large enough to be useful wherever it exists in sufficient quantity. The largest specimens attain a height of fifty fee...

Bitternut hickory’s range covers pretty generally the eastern part of the United States. It is one of the largest and commonest hickories of New England, and is likewise the com...

WATER HICKORY (_Hicoria aquatica_) is known as swamp hickory in South Carolina, Florida, Mississippi, and Louisiana; bitter pecan in Mississippi and Louisiana, and water bittern...

In the North, the slippery elm is sometimes known as moose elm. It furnishes forage in winter for the moose and other herbivorous animals when ground plants are covered with sno...

The tree varies greatly in size. In some remote corners of its immense range it is little more than a shrub, while at its best it may attain a height of 100 feet and a diameter...

BLUE ASH (_Fraxinus quadrangulata_) is named from a blue dye procured from the inner bark. The botanical name relates to the square shape of the young twigs, particularly the tw...

SILVER MAPLE (_Acer saccharinum_) is generally called soft maple by lumbermen. It is known also as white maple, river maple, silver-leaved maple, swamp maple, and water maple. T...

Attempts to ascertain the meaning of the word _negundo_ which botanists apply to this species have not been crowned with entire success. It is known to be a word in the Malayala...

The wood of red haw is of a high character and but for its scarcity would have wide commercial use. It is among the heavy woods of this country. A cubic foot of it, thoroughly s...

The supply of black willow in this country is not small. It is usually found in wet situations along streams. Sometimes islands and low flats are taken possession of and pure st...

YELLOW FLOWERED CUCUMBER TREE (_Magnolia acuminata cordata_) is usually considered a variety of the common cucumber tree, rather than a separate species. The most noticeable fea...

This beautiful little tree, scarcely more than a shrub in most regions of its growth, is a widely distributed species, its range extending through western New York to Nebraska,...

One of the most important uses of Osage orange is found in the manufacture of wagon wheels, though the total quantity so used is smaller than that demanded for fence posts.

WESTERN DOGWOOD (_Cornus nuttallii_) is a larger, taller tree than the eastern flowering dogwood. A height of 100 feet is claimed for it in the low country along the coast of Br...

TEXAN EBONY (_Zygia flexicaulis_) ranges from the Texas coast through Mexico to Lower California. It reaches a height of thirty feet or more, and a diameter of two or less. It i...

JAMAICA DOGWOOD (_Ichthyomethia piscipula_) is the lone representative of the genus, and is found in this country only in southern Florida. It is not in the same family with the...

Ten species of birch occur in the United States, including Alaska. Six are eastern and four western.[8] Sweet birch is known by that name in many localities, but in others as bl...

River birch is widely used but in small amounts. It may properly be described as a neighborhood wood--that is, wherever it grows in considerable quantity it is put to use, but n...

MOUNTAIN ALDER (_Alnus tenuifolia_) is too small to contribute much to the lumber supply of the country, though it may yield fuel in some localities where there is little else....

Notwithstanding the tree’s individuality, it has a good many names. It is generally known as sycamore throughout the states of the Union, but it is frequently called buttonwood...

Except in this indirect way, the wild red cherry is of little use to man. The wood is soft, light, and of pleasing color, but trees are nearly always too small to be worked into...

Dry chestnut wood weighs 28.07 pounds per cubic foot, which makes it a light wood. Its annual rings are as clearly marked as those of any tree in this country. The springwood is...

DECIDUOUS HOLLY (_Ilex decidua_) is called bearberry in Mississippi and possum haw in Florida, while in other regions it is known as swamp holly because of its habit of clinging...

The wood weighs 43.95 pounds per cubic foot. It is a little below eastern white oak in fuel value, a little above it in strength, and somewhat under it in stiffness. The color i...

ANGELICA TREE (_Aralia spinosa_). This is a small tree, which usually develops little or no heartwood. The springwood, or the inner and porous part of the ring, is broad and yel...

Lumbermen in this country could get along very well without the palms, as they are little used for ordinary lumber. Their wood does not grow in concentric rings, like that of th...

PRICKLY ASH (_Xanthoxylum clava-herculis_). Some know this species as toothache tree, tear-blanket, sting-tongue, and Hercules’ club. The wood shows little difference in color b...

Bald cypress, 139 Balm of Gilead, 145, 667, 673 Balm of Gilead fir, 145 Balsam, 135, 136, 151, 166, 673 Balsam fir, 145, 151, 159 Balsam poplar, 673 Baltimore oak, 205 Banana, 6...

Abies amabilis, 165 Abies arizonica, 154 Abies balsamea, 145 Abies concolor, 159 Abies fraseri, 151 Abies grandis, 163 Abies lasiocarpa, 166 Abies magnifica, 164 Abies nobilis,...