Bob- I saw this book at Costco, about a month ago, for $29, and I wish I had purchased it then--out of stock now. Paging through the book for just a couple of minutes, I was impressed. The best price I've found online is $24.46 plus $3.99 shipping. The pre-printed price on the jacket is $39.95. I'll get a copy this week from somewhere to give it a better look.
Steve On Sun, Dec 20, 2009 at 7:58 AM, <[email protected]> wrote: > Barry, > > It just came out. Copyright 2009. > > All ENTS, > > I've been asked by Ryan McEwan (that's Dr. McEwan from Dayton University) > to write a book review for the Journal of the Torrey Botanical Society - a > most honorable, prestigious society. The Society dates back to around around > 1867, I think and is usually considered to be the oldest botanical society > in America. It was created by John Torrey of Columbia University. I regard > the invitation to write the review as a singular highest honor. > > Comments by the rest of you are most welcome. Ed, you are a veritable idea > mill. Steve, you are a botanical encyclopedia. Lee, you are the chief > scientist. Gary, you are a combination all the above. > > I'm presently planning to evaluate the book on two scales or levels: > > 1. relative to other tree guides, and > > 2. on its merits without reference to other guides - an absolute scale > > As a first first crack, I've composed the following evaluation matrix. > > *Category** * *Relative Grade* * **Absolute ** **Grade* > Physical size of book > Organization > > General plant nomenclature > > Choice of species > > Species description > > Drawings > > Leaf Bark Tree profile Flowers and fruits > > Range maps > > Tree dimensional information > > > All and all ideas/suggestions are welcome. > > Bob > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Barry Caselli" <[email protected]> > To: [email protected] > Sent: Sunday, December 20, 2009 7:01:29 AM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern > Subject: Re: [ENTS] Sibley's new tree guide > > I've never heard of this book, actually. > > --- On *Thu, 12/17/09, [email protected] <[email protected]>* wrote: > > > From: [email protected] <[email protected]> > Subject: [ENTS] Sibley's new tree guide > To: [email protected] > Date: Thursday, December 17, 2009, 2:21 PM > > ENTS, > > I just got The Sibley Guide to Trees that everybody has been raving about. > My initial impression is that parts of it are good and parts are definitely > not. Here is my first grading pass. > > Species Coverage: Okay for my purposes. Others Ents like Steve Galehouse > are much better judges of coverage. I give an A-. > > Leaf Drawings: So far, I think pretty good. I give an A-. > > Flowers and Fruits: Okay. I give a B. > > Trunk and Bark: Not so good. I give a C+ > > Tree Profiles: Not good. Erratic coverage. I give a D+ > > Range Maps: Thumbnail presentations: I give a C- > > Dimension Data: I didn't expect the tree dimension information to be good. > Apparently Sibley didn't have a clue as to which sources of information are > reliable and which ones aren't. I think he pulled most of his numbers from > the National Register of Big Trees plus miscellaneous sources. He obviously > didn't do much serious research, so on tree dimensions he earns an F. > > Organization and Layout: Attractive. I give a B+ > > Well that's it for now. I don't minimize the mountain of work required to > produce such an identification guide. Has the guide raised any bars? No, not > from what I'm looking at. > > Bob > -- > Eastern Native Tree Society http://www.nativetreesociety.org > Send email to [email protected] > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees?hl=en > To unsubscribe send email to > [email protected]<entstrees%[email protected]> > > -- > Eastern Native Tree Society http://www.nativetreesociety.org > Send email to [email protected] > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees?hl=en > To unsubscribe send email to > [email protected]<entstrees%[email protected]> > > -- > Eastern Native Tree Society http://www.nativetreesociety.org > Send email to [email protected] > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees?hl=en > To unsubscribe send email to > [email protected]<entstrees%[email protected]> > -- Eastern Native Tree Society http://www.nativetreesociety.org Send email to [email protected] Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees?hl=en To unsubscribe send email to [email protected]
