C. B. (Cyril Bertram) Webster

C. B. Webster, born Cyril Bertram Webster in 1898, was an American forester and writer whose best-known surviving work is Forest Trees of Texas: How to Know Them, written with W. R. Mattoon. The book’s focus on identifying native trees suggests the kind of direct, field-based knowledge that made early forestry manuals so helpful to students, landowners, and general readers.

Available genealogical records identify him as Cyril Bertram Webster (1898–1959), and a memorial record describes him as a 1920 graduate of the University of Michigan in forestry and range science. That same record links him with state forestry work in Texas, which fits closely with the subject of his published book.

Little widely documented biographical material appears to survive online, so his public legacy today rests mainly on that practical contribution: helping readers recognize and understand the trees of Texas in an accessible, no-nonsense way.