Sent: Monday, September 01, 2003 11:37 AM
Subject: RE: book club meeting: Thu, 8/21

Present: Jim and Peter.  We discussed the frist 5 chapters
of "Natural History of the Chicago Region", by Joel Greenberg.
This book is packed with detailed accounts of local natural
communities backed by extensive notes and bibliography.
Some sections can be slow reading, but if you're patient,
you'll find info on such ecological topics such as prairie
peninsula and oak succession, as well as some flora tidbits
such as the fact that Mayapple clones average 40 years,
while Trout Lily clones average 125 years old. A cottonwood
tree in Glenview was estimated to be 500-600 years old
before it was cut down 100 years ago.

Greenberg offers an online guided tour of eight of the most
beautiful natural areas around southern Lake Michigan at:
http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/306488.html

Our next meeting will be Thu 12/4, 7pm.  We will try to
cover as much of the rest of the same book.

After that, our next book will be "The Founding
Fish" by John McPhee; paperback editions of this
book (published Oct 2002) should be available
in October.

Peter
http://www.wideopenwest.com/~peterwchen/book.html