An attractive looking book about the trees and larger shrubs occurring in the European flora or planted in woods or along avenues. It contains over 1000 colour illustrations, photographs of the entire plants and drawings of details. In most cases the illustrations cover about two thirds of the type page. The majority of the illustrations are of the same size, consequently the pages have a well ordered but rather dull appearance. On the whole the photographs are clear, although many of them have lost much by their small size (compare e.g. the large size reproductions on the dust jacket with the small ones of the same photographs in the book of the Silver Birch on p. 43, c and of the London Plane on p. 71. c). The drawings are excellent and show much detail. The text alongside of the illustrations is concise. The author intends to enable the amateur to identify the species included in his book in a simple way: for the larger genera simple keys are given, for the smaller ones the illustrations must do. Symbols give some information about the leaf shape and the geographic distribution. At the end colour photographs of the bark of 58 tree species are given and a chapter is added on “uses to man of selected trees and bushes” in which attention is given to characteristics of the wood, medical properties and uses as food of parts of the trees, their use in parks and gardens and the relations with their environment.