「经济学人」Twelve Trees

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An arboreal affair How “reading trees” can unlock many mysteries Ancient trees have deep roots in culture Twelve Trees . By Daniel Lewis. Simon & Schuster; 304 pages; $30 and £22 IT WAS just a seedling when Egypt’s great pyramids were built. By the time the Roman empire fell its trunk was gnarled and auburn, stretching up more than ten metres. The ancient bristlecone pine (pictured) has witnessed human history for millennia, including “epochs of turbulence and calm”. It is one of 12 trees chronicled by Daniel Lewis, a historian at the Huntington Library in California, in a marvellous new book. This arboreal adventure takes you up the trunk of the mighty ceiba tree in Peru and into the blazing forest fires America’s longleaf pines need to thrive. The dozen species show how much the lives of trees are entwined with people. The world has lost around half its trees since the emergence of agriculture 12,000 years ago. Despite this decline, there are still 3trn trees on Earth ………………………………