A book you also may be interested in.

[A la vida, que hermosura es.]

:Path: bardeen.physics.csbsju.edu!mr.net!umn.edu!
:lynx.unm.edu!triton.unm.edu!news-user
:From: mycol1 at unm.edu (Bryant)
:Newsgroups: bionet.plants
:Subject: Tropical trees: An intro?
:Date: 15 Dec 1993 21:24:47 -0700
:Organization: University of New Mexico, Albuquerque


Dear Bryant:
In bionet.plants (or sci.bio.ecology, I forget which,) you wrote:

x  Does anybody know of a good introduction to tropical trees?  I'm reading
x  up on tree ecology on the side, and would like to get a good taxonomic
x  introduction to neotropical tree species.
x  I'm an undergrad in evol./ecol. interested in restoration ecology in the
x  tropics...so anything on soils and trop. trees would be nice, too.
x  The university just doesn't have such a critter.

As for a introductory textbook I can't say, but I do know of a good field 
guide reasonably priced at around 33 to 35 American dollars.

Gentry, Alwyn H. 
     A Field Guide to the Families and Genera of Woody Plants of Northwest
South America (Colombia, Ecuador, Peru). 895 pp. illustrated.
     Copyright 1993 by, and can be ordered from:

               Conservation International
               1015 18th St. NW, Suite 1000  
               Washington, D.C. 20036 U.S.A.

 ISBN 1-881173-01-1 (pb.)
 L. of Cong. Number 92-74686

I especially like the clear illustrations, and I plan to use this book while in
  a U.S. Peace Corps conservation forestry program.
You may wish to check with a reference librarian about the possibility of using
Interlibrary Loan to get a copy from another academic library.

Good luck, and enjoy your studies of tropical trees.

Dominic D. Ackerman
ddackerman at tiny.computing.csbsju.edu