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TREES, SHRUBS AND WOODY VINES OF THE SOUTHWEST, Robert A. Vines, illustrated by Sarah Kahlden Arendale, hardcover with unclipped dust jacket, probable first edition, 1960. BOOK CONDITION: near fine. The text block is in fine condition, with no tears, dogears, or marks. Some dried samples are tucked in on the corresponding pages. No bookplate or signature of prior owner. Not a library book or remainder. The green cloth boards are in very good condition (several lightly bumped corners). The dust jacket is in poor condition (crinkling and chipping along edges, some tears in the folds, age-toned interior, spotting and discoloring on covers). 11 x 8 ½, 1104 pages, 102 ounces. NOTE: BECAUSE OF THE SIZE AND WEIGHT OF THE BOOK, SOME ADDITIONAL POSTAGE MAY BE REQUIRED, DEPENDING ON YOUR location. XX [From the inner flaps] TWENTY-FIVE YEARS of labor went into this monumental work, which accurately describes and superbly illustrates more than 1200 species of native and naturalized woody plants of the southwestern United States. The vast area covered - Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana -comprises a great variety of plant habitats ranging from the subtropical lower Gulf Coast through various temperate environments to the mountain areas of the West. But though the book is primarily intended to cover only the five states mentioned, the extensive ranges of most of the plants included make it useful in adjacent areas as well. During his research Robert A. Vines traveled more than 250,000 miles by automobile, and he went on foot and on horseback to still other areas that were otherwise inaccessible. Collecting plants in the dry regions of the Southwest is not always an easy matter, Mr. Vines has observed, for much of the area is desert-like and mountainous. Owing to the failure of some plants to produce flowers and fruit in especially dry years, collecting trips to certain areas had to be deferred for as long as several years, until rainfall restored the depleted ground moisture. As a supplement to this staggering amount of field work, the author spent countless hours poring over botanical literature, some of it rare and difficult to locate. Frequently he discovered that old publications were nearly useless, because of incompleteness or vagueness, and he completely redescribed plants known only from such fragmentary descriptive matter. This was a job for which he was especially well qualified, for after a quarter-century of study and observation he has a thorough, firsthand knowledge of the plants in the area - their characteristics, preferences, and variability. The 1231 species described by Mr. Vines are grouped into 102 chapters, each chapter representing a different plant family. The factual material he has recorded is useful to the layman as well as to the botanical specialist. Accompanying the text are more than 1200 remarkable black-and-white drawings by the artist Sarah Kahlden Arendale. They are among the most beautiful botanical drawings ever reproduced in a book, and with the text they make this volume one to be treasured and enjoyed for a lifetime. Seller Inventory # 002563
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Bibliographic Details
Title: Trees, Shrubs and Woody Vines of the ...
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Publication Date: 1960
Binding: Hardcover
Illustrator: Arendale, Sarah Kahlden
Condition: Near Fine
Dust Jacket Condition: Poor
