From two veteran ecologists comes a new and sweeping exploration of the natural history of Texas in all its biological diversity and geological variation. Beginning with the stories of how biologists and naturalists have over time defined the ecological areas of Texas, the authors describe the dominant flora and fauna, explain the defining geologic features, and highlight unique characteristics.

For the first time, this volume presents Vernon Bailey's correspondences and field notes spanning the majority of his life and career, collected and annotated by David J. Schmidly. Born in 1864 and raised on a Minnesota farm, Vernon Bailey became the first person to conduct extensive biological surveys of Texas, New Mexico, North Dakota, and Oregon.