| Pinaceae: Drawings and descriptions of the genera Abies, Cedrus, Pseudolarix, Keteleeria, Nothotsuga, Tsuga, Cathaya, Pseudotsuga, Larix and Picea. |
| Among the coniferous trees of the world, those belonging to the Pine family (Pinaceae) are the most prominent and in several regions dominant kind. Not only is it the largest family, counting species, among the six to eight presently recognized families of conifers, it is also the family that is represented by species that are at the present time the major constituents of the coniferous forests in the Northern Hemisphere. The present work aims at the description and representation in drawings of the taxa here recognized in Pinaceae, excluding the genus Pinus, which has been treated in an earlier publication. This book deals exclusively with taxa in a botanical sense, in other words the species, subspecies and varieties occurring in nature. It are these that, for a large part, need protection through nature conservation efforts, since many of them have not (yet) been grown sufficiently (or at all) in cultivation to ensure future existence should the wild population(s) disappear. Most books on conifers still in use today as reference works are dealing with cultivated trees, either botanical taxa or cultivars or both. Their value is undisputed. The emphasis in the present work, however, is on the trees in their natural surroundings. I have endeavoured to give information with each taxon with that basic principle in mind. Virtually all drawings of habit are taken from photographs of trees in the wild, some, such as made by E.H. Wilson, associated with the original herbarium material collected, others obtained from a variety of sources. Many represent rare material never published before; I only hope that my drawing them did not distort their information too much. Herbarium material has prevailed over arboretum material, both in preparation of the drawings and of the descriptions, but in many cases living material from arboreta was indispensable. The arrangement of genera and species in this book is taxonomical. It is based on views which developed while working on this volume and evolved in discussions with colleagues abroad. Some of these views, notably a classification of Abies and a revision of Keteleeria, are (jointly) published elsewhere and appear in these papers. Consequently, related species (in our view) are grouped together as much as possible, beginning with the type species of a section or subsection, if such are recognized. The arrangement of the genera reflects the views developed by Michael P. Frankis, U.K. and this author, formally published by the first. In the descriptions, the name of the species is followed by the basionym (if any), the most important synonyms and the vernacular names in English and often the languages of the countries where it occurs. The main botanical description pertains to the typical form of the species; subspecies and varieties are described only with their differentiating characters. Ecology and distribution are given for the species including taxa of lower rank, unless explicitly stated otherwise. |
