Posted by: Eric Hammond, Adams County Extension
The Book:
A Natural History of
North American Trees. This is an
abridged volume which combines two other works; A Natural History of Trees
of Eastern and Central North America
and A Natural History of Western Trees both of which were originally published
in the 1950’s
The Author:
Donald Culross Peattie
Peattie was a well know nature writer in the mid-1900’s who
had a particular passion for forestry and silviculture.
Review:
When described in the abstract, this book does not sound
terribly exciting. It is a collection of
profiles of North American trees. For
each species the scientific and common names are given followed by a description
of the species natural range and then of the plant itself and its uses. There are any number of other books which
are written in a similar way, and unless you are very interested in forestry or
a serious tree geek, most of them are a good way to start a nap. This is what sets Peattie’s book apart. His descriptions are vivid and he brings in
pieces of history and the trees places in it that expand the potential audience
to horticulturalists, casual gardeners and even history buffs. It’s still not the kind of book you pick up
and read cover to cover but the descriptions taken on their own or in small
groups really are interesting.
Peattie litters these descriptions with fascinating bits of
information and short stories. For
example, he describes how integral the both Utah and single seed junipers (Juniperus osteosperma and J. monosperma
respectively) were in the lives of the some of the Native American tribes of
the southwest. He relates how children
of some tribes were swaddled in juniper bark “rubbed soft” and placed in
cradles made of juniper. When weaned, they
would be fed juniper berries in the fall and winter and warmed by juniper wood burned
as fuel. It was used in many of rites
and ceremonies of their lives and its branches were used to sweep away the footprints from around their graves. Later
he relates the story of the famous pioneer botanist David Douglas’s first
awkward encounter with sugar pine in the Columbia River Valley. Sometimes these really are short tidbits as
in this single sentence describing why honeyshucks and honey locust were among
the common name given to Gleditsia triacanthos
the names were “…very appropriate on account of the sweet pods eagerly eaten by
cattle and sometimes by nibbling country boys”. It might just be me but, this made me really
curious how the pods taste. I can’t
vouch for the accuracy of the stories but if you are interested in trees or
history they are certainly interesting.
Peattie’s writing is often beautiful and sometimes, at least
from my 21st century perspective, over the top. To illustrate, here is his opening paragraph
on Utah juniper:
On the very edge of the opened
book of the Grand Canyon – page upon page of red stone tablets receding away
into the purple shadows of a billion years of time gone by – perches the Utah
Juniper. Now erect of stem, with crown
symmetrically intact, now aslant over the awesome chasm, now storm-torn, broken
head, and stem contorted as by the whirl of the winds themselves or
lightning-riven and stripped to the white bones of half its bark – this indomitable tree dares
the south rim of the cannon for miles.
And when you step gingerly to the edge and look down into the vast
emptiness, you see this Juniper far below you, dotting the bridle trail,
clinging to perilous ledges, springing out of crevices in the rock, sprinkling
the giddy slopes of talus, a symbol of undefeated life in an abyss of
death. From this only silence wells up
to you, a silence as of outer and infinite space, where interplanetary gales
could blow and make no sound. But when
you stand by a rim Juniper you hear whistling of the wind in its sharp-angled
foliage, a high thin vibration of an elemental harp, and it is a comforting
sound; it is sort of a message for green life, in all this dead geology. Yet in its way the living tree, the older and
craggier it grows seems the most constant of possible trees in this, the most
stupendous site in all the world.
Oh my, that is a lot of descriptors…. This
is typical for the book. They are vivid and express an infectious
passion for the natural world but at times are just too much for my tastes. I found that after reading through a couple
they started to run together and so I would only read them in small chunks. It’s also worth pointing out that from the
perspective of a gardener or horticulturalist there is not a lot of information
related to these fields in such descriptions.
 |
| The book is filled with charming woodcut illustrations like this one of Utah juniper by Paul Landacre |
So should you read this book? If you are interested in trees and the
history of our interaction with the natural world I would guess you will find
Pattie’s work interesting and compelling.
If you are looking to read something that will increase your knowledge
of horticulture or are partial to precise and concise use of the English
language this may not be for you.
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