A New Silva of North America

THE earliest book devoted entirely to the trees of North America is the Arbustrum Americanum of Marshall, published at Philadelphia in 1785. During the century that has elapsed since its publication, botany, and American botany in particular, has changed wonderfully. Explorers and collectors have penetrated further and further what was, in Marshall’s day, an unknown wilderness, until at the present time there are only a few remote and small areas that have not been explored with more or less thoroughness by the botanist as well as the geographer ; and with the steady encroachment of civilization and the more thorough supervision of the Indians, who, until very recently have guarded the great interior of our country with jealous watchfulness, these remaining districts are rapidly becoming known.

Though many American trees had been technically described, both in general botanical works and scattered memoirs of various kinds, even before Marshall’s little book appeared, and many more have been described since then, so that very few species growing within the limits of our land are to-day absolutely unknown, and several attempts at a silva have been made in the mean time, Professor Sargent found, on taking up the study of our trees, that the existing books, both general and special, related only to the trees of comparatively limited regions, and therefore presented no general or systematic view of the composition of our forests. Such works as existed were long out of date, too, and included none of the information collected by recent explorers and observers, and no account whatever of the trees discovered in late years west of the Mississippi River. Many of our trees have never been fully described. All that can be learned about them from books is contained in a few words of purely technical description, of little value to the general reader; and these descriptions are widely scattered in American and foreign publications, to be found only in a few special libraries, beyond the reach of most readers.

Though no important study of such a subject could be undertaken without a knowledge at first hand of what had already been written, and of the names given to the various trees by earlier students, Professor Sargent rightly appreciated that books are only guides towards obtaining a knowledge of trees, which, really to be understood, must be studied as they grow. It was, therefore, a happy circumstance which, some twenty years ago, placed him at the head of the Arnold Arboretum, newly established at Jamaica Plain, and thus enabled him to make an extensive plantation of both native and foreign trees, so arranged as ultimately to exhibit their characters when growing singly and exposed to the elements, as well as in masses more comparable with the natural forest. But carrying a plantation of this sort from the seed to anything approaching maturity is a long and precarious undertaking, and it was a still more fortunate circumstance which, in connection with the census of 1880, enabled Professor Sargent to study our native trees — many of which, moreover, could not be cultivated in the trying climate of New England — in their home, the forests of the entire country.

So great a task as this could not be completed by a single person in the limited time allowed by the census requirements ; but by the selection of trained collectors familiar with their several regions, and by visiting personally the more important districts, Mr. Sargent succeeded in preparing for the ninth volume of the last census report a catalogue of our trees, which supplies in a concise form full reference to the descriptions of them which have been published, as well as a very thorough account of their geographical distribution, and of their popular names and the uses made of their products. Even more important than this publication, though necessarily accessible to those only who can visit it, is a collection of woods from the trees comprised in the census report, which its author collected for a public-spirited citizen of New York, and which, labeled so as to present clearly the uses and synonymy of the trees, and accompanied by sketches representing their characters in leaf, flower, and fruit, has very recently been opened to the public at the Central Park Museum in New York city, under the name of the Jesup Collection of North American Woods.

So well has Professor Sargent improved the several opportunities he has enjoyed that, between a study of the forests from Canada to Mexico, and the Atlantic to the Pacific, and an examination of the gardens of America and Europe, there are now hardly a half dozen species of our trees that he has not seen in a living state. From the results of this study and the notes of the most skilled observers of the entire country, he now offers to the public a full and systematic account of our entire tree flora. This work — the first silva of North America as a whole — is to consist of twelve thick folio volumes, containing six hundred full-page illustrations, representing every species which reaches the dimensions of a tree within our region, and accompanied by a sufficient account of its synonymy, and copious information as to its usefulness for ornament or in the arts. When completed, the work must form a lasting monument to those who have contributed to its production, a standard authority to which all future students in the same field must turn, and an indispensable part of the equipment of every library which aims at any degree of completeness in either botany or horticulture.

Much of the botanical value of such a work depends upon the faithfulness of the illustrations it contains. Its appearance is no less dependent upon the artistic taste with which these are drawn and the skill with which they are prepared. Up to the present time few extensive works on American botany have been adequately illustrated, owing to the great cost of really good work. Many years ago, Professor Gray undertook the preparation of a work on the genera of our native plants, which was to have included all of them, the illustrations for which were drawn by Sprague ; but on account of the expense of the undertaking and for other reasons it never went beyond the second volume. Later, a beginning was made by the same author and artist on a silva, but this was also abandoned. Since then no thoroughly and artistically illustrated botanical work of equal comprehensiveness has been undertaken in this country.

For the new Silva, Professor Sargent has been fortunate in securing the services of Mr. Faxon, whose drawings need not be more highly praised than by saying that they show the same artistic composition and fullness and clearness of detail which have long been admired in those of Sprague. The execution of the engravings from these drawings is all that could be asked by the severest critic, since they are printed from copper plates engraved in Paris by the Picart brothers, under the supervision of the veteran botanical artist Riocreux. The only other extensive American works on botany which can compare at all favorably with the new Silva in this respect are those by Professor Gray on the botany of the Wilkes Exploring Expedition, and Dr. Engelmann on the Cacti of the Mexican Boundary Expedition; both of which were also illustrated by plates engraved in Paris.

Although but one volume of the Silva has yet been issued (dated 1891, but really published in October last), its uniform completion is assured by the announcement of the publishers that the drawings for the entire work and the engravings for three volumes are already made, the engravers being under contract to devote their whole time to the work until it is finished. It is announced that two volumes a year will be published, as nearly as may be, until all are issued.

Paper, typography, and press-work are all that can be asked. Only one thing can stand in the way of a large demand for the book, — its expensiveness ; for the cost of the entire work will amount to three hundred dollars. But so many Americans are now becoming interested in economic botany, and particularly forestry, and the beautiful and thorough manner in which the Silva is brought out must appeal so strongly to all lovers Of good books, that even this cost ought not to prove a bar to its extensive purchase, which is rendered easier by the considerable intervals at which the volumes are to be issued from the press.