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One of the greatest American works on trees and woods, it is: “illustrated by actual specimens, and being in this way an exhibition of nature itself. It possesses a peculiar and great interest never found in a press-printed book” (Hough). Romeyn B. Hough prepared the samples himself and self-published the work. It provides a unique record of American wood types, arranged geographically. Several parts in this section cover California and the Pacific Slope. This is a tremendously important work for ecologists as well as connoisseurs of American furniture and antiques. Each specimen is about 2x4½” in size and cut thinly enough to be partially translucent. This set is only very rarely found complete, presumably because it was published over a span of 40 years.