One of earliest, photographic works on trees is this rare, privately published work by Henry William Clinton-Baker. This included photographs of the more than 150 conifers in his family’s pinetum at Bayfordbury in Hertfordshire, England, just north of London.
The original three volumes were published between 1909-1913 with life-size photographs. Each showed a branch with foliage and cones designed to provide identification help for conifers planted in Britain. Despite limited distribution, these books proved to be very useful, and a fourth volume of additional trees followed in 1936.
The sepia toned, close-up images are of high quality. Each entry includes the age of the tree and its height and girth. A century later, these are still a valuable measure of the growth rates for different species.
Reviewed by: Brian Thompson on February 24, 2025
Excerpted from the Spring 2025 issue of the Arboretum Bulletin