Sylva, Or, a Discourse of Forest Trees
With an Essay on the Life and Works of the Author

A 1908 two-volume reissue of a pioneering 1664 work on forestry, encouraging tree-planting in order to improve the Royal Navy's supply of timber.

John Evelyn (Author), John Nisbet (Edited by)

9781108055260, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 21 February 2013

458 pages, 1 b/w illus.
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.6 cm, 0.67 kg

John Evelyn (1620–1706), intellectual, diarist, gardener and founder member of the Royal Society, is best known for his Diary, the great journal of his life and times, encompassing a momentous period in British history. A lifelong collector of books, like his contemporary Pepys, Evelyn amassed over 4,000 items in his library. This work, originally published in 1664, was the first English-language treatise on forestry. Intended for the gentry, it aimed to encourage tree-planting after the ravages of the Civil War and to ensure a supply of timber for Britain's fast-developing navy. The first work sponsored officially by the Royal Society, it was an offshoot of Evelyn's unpublished manuscript Elysium Britannicum, a compendium of gardens and gardening. This is the 1908 two-volume reprint of the fourth edition, published in the year of Evelyn's death. Volume 1 describes different species of tree, deciduous and evergreen, and includes an introductory biography of Evelyn by John Nisbet (1858–1914).

Introduction
Books published by the author
Book I: 1. Of the earth, soil, seed, air, and water
2. Of the seminary and of transplanting
3. Of the oak
4. Of the elm
5. Of the beech
6. Of the horn-beam
7. Of the ash
8. Of the chestnut
9. Of the walnut
10. Of the service, and black cherry-tree
11. Of the maple
12. Of the sycomor
13. Of the lime-tree
14. Of the poplar, aspen, and abele
15. Of the quick-beam
16. Of the hasel
17. Of the birch
18. Of the alder
19. Of the withy, sallow, ozier, and willow
20. Of fences, quick-sets, etc.
Book II: 1. Of the mulberry
2. Of the platanus, lotus, cornus, acacia, etc.
3. Of the fir, pine, pinaster, pitch-tree, larsh, and subterranean trees
4. Of the cedar, juniper, cypress, savine, thuya, etc.
5. Of the cork, ilex, alaternus, celastrus, ligustrum, philyrea, myrtil, lentiscus, olive, granade, syring, jasmine and other exoticks
6. Of the arbutus, box, yew, holly, pyracinth, laurel, bay, etc.
7. Of the infirmities of trees, etc.

Subject Areas: Environmental management [RNF]