A Natural History of Conifers | 
| Author: Aljos Farjon
Publisher: Timber Press
Category: Book
List Price: $34.95
Buy New: $21.76
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Avg. Customer Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 216417
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.7
Dimensions (in): 10.6 x 7.5 x 1.1
ISBN: 0881928690
Dewey Decimal Number: 585
EAN: 9780881928693
ASIN: 0881928690
Publication Date: May 15, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
A compelling account of the extraordinary relatives of ordinary garden conifers.
Leading expert Aljos Farjon provides a compelling narrative that observes conifers from the standpoint of the curious naturalist. It starts with the basic question of what conifers are and continues to explore their evolution, taxonomy, ecology, distribution, human uses, and issues of conservation. As the story unfolds many popular misconceptions are dispelled, such as the false notion that all conifers have cones. The extraordinary diversity of conifers begins to dawn as Farjon describes the diminutive creeping shrub Microcachrys tetragona, whose strange seed cones resemble raspberries, and the prehistoric-looking Araucaria meulleri.
The taxonomic diversity of conifers is huge and Farjon goes on to relate how, over the course of 300 million years, these trees and shrubs have adapted to survive geological upheavals, climatic extremes, and formidable competition from flowering plants. All who seek to learn more about the early history of life on our planet will cherish this book.
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| Customer Reviews:
recommended July 15, 2008
As we have become accustomed to from Timber Press, this is a very well-printed book, on glossy paper, with an immaculate layout. Illustrations are excellent and are of three kinds: mainly 1) color photographs and 2) line-drawings but with the occasional 3) SEM B&W photograph. Most of the illustrations were made by the author, but some have been contributed by other experts (for instance, some of the line-drawings have been borrowed from van Pelt's book).
Obviously, the author is THE acknowledged expert on conifers and the text well reflects that, taking the grand view.
Two points that bothered me are the writing style, which, although accessible enough, strikes me as peculiar (at least in some spots); also the chapter on wood is clearly written by the conifer expert making notes, without a real understanding of this rather different topic or a feel for it.
Nevertheless, this is book is great value for money.
Timber Press and Farjon hit a home run... May 20, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I'm not sure how to review this book without resorting to tired cliches like "a masterpiece" or "the bible of conifer natural histories." This book just happens to be the prefect example of everything popular science writing should be.
Farjon doesn't dumb down the science and doesn't apologize for it (excepting a brief mea culpa in the preface, which also includes Farjon's philosophy on the craft of writing popular science, so don't skip the preface!) Any botanist will enjoy this book just as much as an amateur ecologist, weekend hiker, or little old lady in suburbia with pine trees in her yard. The scientists will find many morsels to whet the appetite for further study while the amateur will walk through a door to the wonders of conifer natural history, perhaps referring back to the book after every new hike through the woods.
There are 34 chapters - some of them as short as just a couple pages. This brevity makes the text an easy, casual read. Each chapter is headed with an anecdote from the author's life or human history. The first 20 or so chapters deal with the typical science common to any natural history - evolution, physiology, systematic, ecology. There follows a section on geography (often lacking in popular works), then several chapters about human interaction with conifers which segues nicely into the final section about conservation. A glossary and a reference section close the book. As I desperately try to find something negative to say here, I guess I wished only that the references would have been more numerous, but that is truly a nit-picky complaint.
Timber Press did their usual bang-up job of production with gr eat binding and paper, beautiful jacket, and stunning photos. The two-page spreads introducing the main sections are the stuff of a coffee table book. The rest of the book is not cluttered, yet hardly a page goes by without a color photo or some sort of eye candy. It really does seem like a coffee table book, but with meat instead of the usual fluff in the text.
Enough gushing! Buy the book and see for yourself!
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