[[abstract]]This is the third of a sequence of papers in an attempt to study the Perron-Frobenius theory of a nonnegative matrix and its generalizations from the cone-theoretic viewpoint. Our main object of interest here is the core of a cone-preserving map. If A is an n x n real matrix which leaves invariant a proper cone K in R" , then by the core of A relative to K , denoted by cokk{A) , we mean the convex cone |~)~, A'K. It is shown that when coreK(A) is polyhedral, which is the case whenever K is, then cotck(A) is generated by the distinguished eigenvectors of positive powers of A . The important concept of a distinguished /1-invariant face is introduced, which corresponds to the concept of a distinguished class in the nonnegative matr...