Arboriculture & Urban Forestry 43(2): March 2017 Arboriculture & Urban Forestry 2017. 43(2):83–85 83 Book Review Moore, D., and J.W. White. 2013. The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Trees, second edition. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, U.S. 832 pp. ISBN 978-0-691-15823-5 It has been stated that one never gets “a second chance to make a first impression.” At over 800 printed pages, perhaps the first impression made on an individual who encounters the second edition of The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Trees is the sheer size of the publication. The next impression may be of the quality and number of the illustrations therein. Nearly all of the pages of this book feature detailed, hand-drawn, color depictions of leaves, bark, fruit, and flowers of hundreds of species of trees. The lead author (David Moore) is described as a “trained artist,” and in this publication, his illustrative ac- complishments are a testament to that training. Although the printed feedback on the front cover (from The Seattle Times) exclaims that Illustrated En- cyclopedia is “the very best book . . . for identifying trees,” the authors rather candidly describe this pub- lication as, primarily, a “book for pleasure,” indicat- ing that it is “far from a botanical text-book” in their Foreword (p. 7). The authors then detail that their intentions behind this book were simply to describe “a tree’s distinctive characteristics of form, growth, history, or points of general interest” (p. 8). They also imply that few technical terms are used, and that readers are encouraged to consult the Glossary near the end of the text for any needed clarification. Following the Foreword, the authors commence the Introduction by contrasting the “rich and var- ied” native tree flora of North America to that of Europe, which they describe as being rather “small and reduced” (p. 9). They do, however, outline that while European forests tend to be dominated only by a few tree species, Europeans themselves have been actively carrying out expeditions to other regions of the globe for many centuries, returning home with a multitude of plant seeds from abroad. The authors also laud how the moist, maritime climate of Britain and Ireland has facilitated the healthy growth and development of what are pre- dominantly exotic tree species, more than in “any comparable area of the temperate world” (p. 9). The authors go on to describe and define terms like species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cul- tivars. The authors contend that because trees offer a quality of “permanence” (p. 11) to a loca- tion, due in part to their longevity and immo- bility, their selection and installation deserves great thought, planning, and consideration. They advocate that one method of selecting trees is to advance through the process of elimination; that is to say, first determining what isn’t suitable or desirable for a given spot. Because trees change over time, the authors suggest considering many of the design and practical components of a tree before its final selection. They urge thought- ful visualizing as to what the tree will look like many decades into the future, considering how it may change a viewscape or how it will cast shade, and urge locating and examining other larger, more mature specimens to aid in this understanding. In largely non-technical terms, the authors then detail the installation process itself, discussing the digging of the hole and the planting and staking of the specimen. They insist that newly planted specimens need not be fer- tilized, nor the planting-hole soil be amended. Following this, the authors recount the fascinat- ing practice of plant collecting. They discuss how collecting methods have changed through the ages, from pre-historic and Roman times, when plants were transported for their edible fruits, to the more formal naming, classification, and recording of taxa by Carol von Linne and the early expedi- tions of Englebert Kaempfer, John Tradescant, James Cunningham, Peter Collinson, John Bar- tram, Pierre d’Incarville, Captain Cook, William Roxburgh, and John Gould Veitch. Of these, spe- cial mention is given to two collectors: the “truly intrepid” (p. 15) Scottish explorer, David Douglas ©2017 International Society of Arboriculture
March 2017
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