Tree Lore

I like trees, so it's not surprising my eye was caught recently by yet another tree book.  It's Lives of the Trees: An Uncommon History, by Diana Wells.  You can buy it from amazon.com by clicking the icon on the right margin.

What's different about this one is that it's not just another coffee-table book full of lushly reproduced photos of magnificent trees, nor is it a field guide to identifying trees.  Instead, though are many nice line drawings by Heather Lovett to admire, it's the text that attracts. 

The book tells us nothing about its author except (by inference from a couple of other works she's published) that she is a compiler of data on a theme. Here, she provides fascinating short profiles of a wide variety of types of trees, each only 3-4 pages long, organized alphabetically from "Acacia" to "Yew." 

Each vignette may include myths about the given tree, its place in literature and history, its fruit or the practical uses of its wood, its geographic origin or the etymology of its name -- an altogether fascinating, even spellbinding, narrative for anyone who admires trees.  For example, that the holly's light wood has been used in cabinetry, that the "apple" Eve ate might not have been an apple at all but some other fruit; or that the sassafras tree's leaves, bark, and root were all variously thought to heal so many ailments that it became known as the "universal tree."

The only drawback is the jumbled, sometimes breathless, style (there's a lot to be presented in a short space, after all); and for the tree purist perhaps, the slight drawback that the source and veracity of these tidbits is unclear.  But overall, a very entertaining, fun, readable, and recommendable book.  

Comments

[Ajf 6]

I like your blog, because we have similar outlook and outlook on life!

[Najam]

Imagine if you could reproduce that tree! 3 thngis I would wish for is 1.somehow I wish we could be closer to all family members stretched across Australia so catching up didn't always seem impossible. 2. I could get my act together so I could achieve more. I frustrate myself on so many different levels some days!3. That everyone feels happy and loved.