Rating: 
Summary: Meet Some Big Trees
Review: Stunning photos of enormous trees from around the world. Authors made efforts to represent multiple parts of the globe. As noted in other reviews, the focus is on famous examples of various tree species known for their longevity. The text makes for interesting reading, too, noting historical attitudes towards various tree species. Of course the book doesn't contain the dry scientific rigor that would be necessary to adequately address complex issues surrounding how trees survive for so long. This book seems to be intended more as a celebration of amazing trees (read the introduction). However, there is some content addressing how some trees get real old, pointing out how human intervention has actually prolonged the lives of some specimens.My only complaint is that the western red cedar gets a mere two-sentence, small-font honorable mention in the rear of the book.
Rating:
Summary: A beautiful and informative book
Review: This absorbing book explores some of the oldest living organisms on the planet. Over eighteen types of trees are investigated, from the skyscraping Redwood of North America to the groundhugging Welwitschia of Namibia. Here is the complete list: Redwood, Brittlecone Pine, Montezuma Cypress, Monkey Puzzle, Amazonian Ancients (including Brazil Nut, Cumaru and Castanha de Macaco), Yew, Oak, Sweet Chestnut, Lime, Olive, Welwitschia, Baobab, Kauri, Totara, Antarctic Beech, Fig, Cedar and Ginkgo. At the beginning of each discussion there is an info panel providing the botanical name, distribution, the oldest known living specimen, historical significance and conservation status of each. The text is quite engaging and the introduction even covers the literary and artistic inspiration of trees in the works of Wordsworth, Vincent van Gogh, Thomas Jefferson, Aldous Huxley, William Blake and others. There is a double page full color map, about 150 beautiful color photographs plus black and white illustrations. The photographs are magnificent. This engrossing and visually impressive work concludes with an extensive bibliography and an index.
Rating:
Summary: Facinating and beautiful
Review: This book is a enthralling look at the world's oldest trees. Aside from the famed redwoods and bristlecone pines, how many know that limes can live over 1000 years, or that olive trees from Plato's time still yield their fruit in season? reading the chapters of this book send the mind wandering back across all of human history: the Tree of One Hundred Horses, an olive tree so huge that its' shade could cover literally a hundred head of horse, famous in Plato's time, has thrived at the foot of Mt. Etna, an active volcano, since nearly the dawn of history. Or, think of how there are cedars in Lebanon that were standing when Solomom's temple was built out of their brothers. The reverie and sense of awe that this tome's stories inspire are well worth the price. -Lloyd A. Conway
Rating:
Summary: Facinating and beautiful
Review: This book is a enthralling look at the world's oldest trees. Aside from the famed redwoods and bristlecone pines, how many know that limes can live over 1000 years, or that olive trees from Plato's time still yield their fruit in season? reading the chapters of this book send the mind wandering back across all of human history: the Tree of One Hundred Horses, an olive tree so huge that its' shade could cover literally a hundred head of horse, famous in Plato's time, has thrived at the foot of Mt. Etna, an active volcano, since nearly the dawn of history. Or, think of how there are cedars in Lebanon that were standing when Solomom's temple was built out of their brothers. The reverie and sense of awe that this tome's stories inspire are well worth the price. -Lloyd A. Conway
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