The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Trees [Illustrated] [Hardcover]

John White (Author), David More (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 2002

This book is the result of 10 years of on-site, meticulous painting of individual living trees as well as their detailed parts. David More, a supremely gifted botanical artist, painted each of the more than 2000 individual color illustrations. The main section of the book is devoted to 377 double-page spreads, which describe and illustrate more than 1000 species and varieties of trees.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Artist More's "personal project to record in detail as many tree species, varieties and cultivars as he could find in the British Isles and Ireland" evolved into an ambitious but ambiguous publishing project. The result, "primarily a book for pleasure-far from a botanical text-book," is too heavy for a field guide, too small for a place on the coffee table, and too Euro-centric to be of practical value to American gardeners. It will be valued here by a discerning but limited audience. A fine painter with a naturalist's eye, More depicts trees and their parts meticulously. The quality of reproduction does his work justice, but the crowded layout does not. Several of the 2,000 color illustrations, all in limbo against the white of the page, are grouped together on each spread. The addition of whimsical birds, animals, and people provides scale. White's text is informative but inconsistent-a scholarly meditation on each tree rather than parallel descriptions. Hardiness is expressed as percentages rather than the familiar USDA zone numbers, and the "garden value" of a given tree may be rated both "excellent" and "of less merit" with no explanation why. In all, More and White have succeeded at creating a remarkable body of work. Had they presented it as a series of field guides or a folio of annotated illustrations, they might produced a book with more promising commercial prospects here as well.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

First published in England, this volume could be described as a labor of love. More worked for many years painting the more than 2,000 illustrations of trees, bark, flowers, leaves, cones, and fruits. White is a retired dendrologist who wrote the accompanying text. The trees are varieties that grow in Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, and Holland, but the introduction notes that most are found in the U.S and many are native to North America.

The volume is arranged by scientific order beginning with the ginkgo family and ending with palms. Each two-page spread has an average of a quarter page of text with the rest devoted to illustrations of the trees and detailed pictures of the cones, leaves, etc. In addition to the descriptions of more than 1,000 species and varieties of trees, there are notes indicating height, hardiness, choice, and wood. The hardiness table is calculated by a percentage based on the minimum temperature. Choice refers to a tree's garden value as expressed by a rating of from one (excellent for ornamental and practical value) to four (not recommended because of susceptibility to disease or other reasons). The illustrations of mature trees (often in two or three seasons) sometimes have an animal or person under the tree to indicate scale. There are some omissions of common trees in the U.S., such as the mountain laurel and shadbush. Other oddities include the use of the term lime instead of linden.

In the last four years there have been a number of books published on trees. For the U.S. gardener Dirr's Hardy Trees and Shrubs (Timber, 1998) is recommended. However, The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Trees is more than a reference book and will be read for pleasure. The beautiful illustrations and informative text make it a perfect source for anyone interested in this important part of our environment. An appropriate purchase for academic and public libraries. RBB
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 800 pages
• Publisher: Timber Press, Incorporated; 1ST edition (December 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0881925209
• ISBN-13: 978-0881925203
• Product Dimensions: 10.4 x 7.9 x 2.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,271,217 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you love trees, you should own this book, December 26, 2003

By 

Brad VanAuken (Honeoye Falls, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Trees (Hardcover)

I value this almost as much as I do Dirr's Hardy Trees and Shrubs: An Illustrated Encyclopedia. What I like best about this book are (a) the wide variety of trees that it features and (b) the excellent illustrations, which provide far more detail on tree profiles, leaves, cones and other seedpods than other comparable books. So far, I have found illustrations for every tree that I have considered planting, including many uncommon ones. This book can really help you visualize what a particular tree will look like when you are designing your landscape.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Blissful Hours with This Book, July 24, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Trees (Hardcover)

If you love trees you need to own this book. What an achievement for an artist not even 50 years old yet; 800 pages of astonishingly detailed paintings of hundreds of trees. The lifelike realism of form is matched in the coloring of all aspects of tree morphology and development, including bark, seeds, cones, berries, twigs, leaves and silhouettes. The first time I opened the book I thought the pictures were photographs. The more I examine the paintings the more agog I am that they came from a person's vision and hand - and the more I prefer them to photographs. People who love trees will understand what I mean when I say the paintings, with absolute realism,convey the spirit of trees in a way that photographs can't.
A book to covet until you own it. It's brilliant and extraordinary.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A color-packed volume organized by type of tree, July 19, 2003

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Trees (Hardcover)

This comprehensive arboreal reference deserves a spot on any serious gardening library shelf. Illustrated Encyclopedia Of Trees has been 12 years in the making and is packed from cover to cover with detailed paintings of living trees which supplements the in-depth research conducted by botanist More and writer John White. The result is a color-packed volume organized by type of tree and including such details as geographic distribution, importance to American industry, and natural history. Some of this information is scattered in other volumes on trees; the depth of detail and intricate drawing of the trees featured in this superbly organized and presented encyclopedia set it apart from all others and make it a highly recommended, 'must' library reference.