The New Sylva: A Discourse of Forest and Orchard Trees for the Twenty-First Century

"I chose this book first and foremost for Sarah Simblet’s spectacular ink drawings. Trees live at scales that are hard to represent. Their form is much larger than we readily apprehend with senses tuned to human scale (torso size, which is why bonsai is such an effective artform). But they’re also made of detail — bud scales, texture of twig bark, leaf edging — that is so small that our senses often skip over it. Simblet’s drawings speak very powerfully of the nature of each of her subjects. Through her work I understand and sense the trees, a very direct and profound experience. This comes across in the book plates and even more so in the originals that I saw at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh. I learned afterward from her “note” in the book that she draws with a single steel-dip pen, often while holding the plant in her other hand. I suspect that this method allows deeper sensory understanding, more expansive observation. The use of a single pen is perhaps analogous to meditative technique, going deeper through material focus and simplicity. The very first book published by The Royal Society was John Evelyn’s Sylva . This most august of scientific societies understood at its origin that human lives and tree lives were deeply interconnected. As you mention, The New Sylva is a response and homage — an attempt to underscore this truth for the present day. And just as Sarah Simblet connects detail with broader understanding, Gabriel Hemery’s text gathers many particulars — especially practical wisdom gained through horticulture in British soil — to make a larger argument that our well-being depends on trees. In the seventeenth century this dependence was obvious through everyday use of timber and fuel wood. It was also a matter of national security as the navy needed oak for its warships. Today the connections are just as vital, but indirect and often global in scale. Hemery also outlines threats to trees, especially climate change and invasive pests. These two factors will fell more trees than the navy ever did and combatting them should be high on the agenda of any country. This is partly what I’ve tried to do in The Songs of Trees : bring these unexpected stories of interconnection into the light."