Cayley's Formula

Theorem
The number of distinct labeled trees with $$n$$ nodes is $$n^{n-2}$$.

Proof
Follows directly from Bijection between Prüfer Sequences and Labeled Trees.

This shows that there is a bijection between the set of labeled trees with $$n$$ nodes and the set of all Prüfer sequences of the form:
 * $$\left({\mathbf{a}_1, \mathbf{a}_2, \ldots, \mathbf{a}_{n-2}}\right)$$

where each of the $$\mathbf{a}_i$$'s is one of the integers $$1, 2, \ldots, n$$, allowing for repetition.

Since there are exactly $$n$$ possible values for each integer $$\mathbf{a}_i$$, the total number of such sequences is $$\prod_{i=1}^{n-2} n$$.

The result follows from Same Cardinality Bijective Injective Surjective.

Historical Note
This proof, given by Heinz Prüfer, first appeared in 1918.

Cayley himself first stated this theorem in his A Theorem on Trees in 1889, but his proof was unsatisfactory as he discussed only the case where $$n=6$$, and his method can not be generalized to larger $$n$$.