Oliver Rackham

Warning: the beautiful trees in this book may very soon be extinct

A review of The New Sylva: A Discourse of Forest and Orchard Trees for the Twenty-first Century, by Gabriel Hemery and Sarah Simblet. John Evelyn, the father of modern forestry, provides the starting point for a silvological exploration - but it could all be gone by 2100

Raspberry and quince by Sarah Simblet [Getty Images/Shutterstock/iStock/Alamy] 
issue 31 May 2014
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  • The New Sylva: A Discourse of Forest and Orchard Trees for the Twenty-first Century

    Gabriel Hemery and Sarah Simblet

    Bloomsbury, pp. 390

John Evelyn (1620–1706) was not only a diarist. He was one of the most learned men of his time: traveller, politician, town-planner, artist, numismatist, gardener and opponent of air pollution. He was a founder of the Royal Society and gave one of its first presentations, which was expanded into Sylva, or a Discourse of Forest-Trees and the Propagation of Timber.

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