Abstract

This book is a compendium of information on plants (and some micro‐organisms) that are, or could be, useful to humans. Some idea of its vast scope can be gained from the list of chapter headings: Plant collecting, taxonomy and nomenclature; Environmental considerations; Plant conservation; Ecophysiology and allied disciplines; Plant breeding and propagation; Marketing of crops and crop products; Human and animal nutrition; Human food and food additives; Feed for livestock; Food for bees and other desirable invertebrates; Timber and wood products; Fuel; Vegetable fibres; Phytochemicals; Human and veterinary medicinal plants; Plant toxins and their applications; Useful ferns, bryophytes, fungi, bacteria and viruses; Useful algae; Environmental uses; and Social uses. In the last chapter ‘At the start of the 21st century’, the book strays into other territories, including the ethics of genetically modified crops. The author does not tell us who this book is written for, and it is difficult to work this out. The last decade has seen a range of specialist books treating many of the chapter topics at the level needed by advanced undergraduates, graduates and professionals; the text here is, necessarily, superficial, descriptive and lacking in analysis. On the other hand, some of the important issues of today in economic botany, such as genetic diversity/resources, intellectual property rights and the use of molecular biological approaches in investigations of phylogenetic relationships, receive little attention. Because the author extends himself beyond his own fields of expertise, there are places in the book where the information is quite misleading. For example, in a rather eccentric chapter on ecophysiology, there is confusion around ‘adaptive and hereditary characters’ and between ‘tolerance and resistance’, none of these terms being clearly defined. Gibberellins are listed as auxins, and other growth substances, such as cytokinins, are not mentioned. Similar comments could be made about other chapters. Careful reading of the text reveals an unsatisfactory standard of proof reading: ‘Puztal’ for Puztai, ‘lycine’ for lysine. The book is nearly all words, with few interpretative figures or tables. There is, however, a set of very comprehensive indexes. This, then, is a mountain of fascinating information for plant scientists, culled during a long career in economic botany: on brown spot disease of rice in the Bengal famine of 1943; the glucomannans used as emulsifiers in food and drink in Japan; the screw pressing of oilseeds; the dye Saxon Green associated with Robin Hood and Sherwood Forest; plant toxins as arrow poisons; and the use of gorse on May Day in Ireland and Wales to ward off witches and fairies from the house. One disappointment is in the discussion of the differing uses of the term ‘marmalade’ in the UK and France: in Dundee, the true home of orange marmalade, it has long been assumed that the recipe was brought from France by Mary, Queen of Scots, and that its etymology refers to her seasickness on the way over. At a cost of £140, this must be one of the last compendia of its type. Much of the information can now be accessed from the world wide web, free of charge, but I will continue to have fun dipping into this book for some time.

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