British native tree book

[Ranger Bob]

Saw an advert for this in the june edition of Country Smallholding magazine.... http://www.wildeye.co.uk/trees/

Heres a description from the site:
"British Native Trees - Their Past and Present Uses
This unique book explores the past and present uses of products
(wood, bark, fruit, sap etc) of the 35 species of British native trees.

With sections:

A genus by genus break down of past and present uses of British native tree products
A guide to Coppicing
The history and practice of Charcoal Production
Firewood - including an exploration of the environmental issues involved in burning wood in the home, sources of firewood, which wood to burn, seasoning and storing firewood, kindling and a foolproof guide to building the one-match-fire!"

The book is £5.95 or it can be downloaded as an ebook (1.73Mb) for £3.95!

I've downloaded it and had a quick flick through....The first 1/3 of the book is concerned with various matters about fire and fire wood and a (brief) description of coppicing and pollarding. The rest of the book is made up of a description of each tree's properties along with old and present uses. There is photography throughout, though much of it is of little use. The information however is very interesting.....looks like a nice little resource!!

 

[led]

Thanks for the pointer, it looks like (yet) another book to put on the wishlist .

 

[Ranger Bob]

While I think about it:

Another little book I picked up a couple of days ago:

Native British Trees by Andy Thompson
ISBN: 1904263321
£4.99

A little pricey for what it is but still nice little book with a description of each tree's apperance and a summary of uses. Most, if not all of the imformation could be found elsewhere, or on the internet, but what make this book nice is that each tree is accompanied by prints from John Evelyn's "Silva" of 1776.(which are probably worth the price alone!)

 

[tomtom]

I'd be interested to hear what their definition of 'native' is?

 

[Ranger Bob]

The first book does not provide a definition, the second book I mention says: "The last ice age cleared our shores of tree-life. As the ice receded our native trees returned to cover a large proportion of the land. These trees include all that are mentioned in this book - Sweet Chestnut has been included as it has grown in Britain for over 2000 years."

http://www.british-trees.com/guide/treedef.htm says "The generally accepted definition of "Native Tree" is based on those trees that colonised the British Isles after the last ice age and before they were cut off from the rest of Europe by the rising sea levels."