Forest Giants of the World, Past and Present

Book excerpt: Ever since the forest primeval, men and women have walked among the trees and admired their beauty and wondered at their size. How big are these magnificent things, anyway? We moderns are wont to measure, categorize and document, and so a book like this is born which is world-wide in scope and not only embraces space but also time. As the author, Al Carder, shows us in his study of forest giants the past is as important as the present. Many, many of our great trees have fallen and disappeared, some through fire and storm but more through the ravages of our own kind. Dr. Carder has not only traveled the world in search of the living giants, he has consulted the histories and records to identify those great trees that have been and gone, and his book is therefore an authoritative record of the world's super trees, past and present. Height is only one quality of greatness. Some trees are awesome in their ultimate form; their bole, their spread of canopy, their age. All these features are ardently noted by the author who describes more than 140 species. Forest Giants of the World will appeal to those who wonder about the location and the measurement of the Great Trees as well as to the specialist who requires more technical details about them.