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The fishes and the frest. Explorations in Amazonian natural history
Journal
of Ethnopharmacology,
6 (1982)
121
121
- 126
Book Reviews
An Enumeration
of Chinese
Materia Medica
by Shiu-ying Hu; published by Chinese University 1980; xxiv + 287 pp.; price $21.50.
Press, Hong Kong,
Naturally, those parts of the world with the oldest cultural history and traditions usually have the most extensive medicinal use of the natural vegetation. It is not surprising, therefore, that China takes a place of preeminence in this respect. The recent increase in the western world of interest in China and Chinese culture has engendered an upsurge of interest in the ethnopharmacological knowledge of ancient and modern Chinese civilizations. It is, therefore, heartening that a botanist, Dr. Shiu-ying Hu, with assistance from pharmacologists, has been willing to devote endless hours to the preparation of this volume: a key that unlocks the vast wealth of medicines employed in China. The variety and amount of information contained in this book are incredible. It has been excellently organized: an alphabetical list of Chinese medicines with botanical and English names, all arranged according to pharmaceutical usage; a systematic arrangement of native medicinal plants, animals and minerals, and several useful appendices. The volume ends with an index of Chinese names. The paper, printing and bindings are of an unusually high quality, I know of few people better equipped to elaborate such a book than Dr. Hu. She has dedicated a life to Chinese botany and has worked in the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, one of the institutions with outstanding facilities for the study of Asiatic floras. This contribution will long serve botanists, pharmacologists and chemists in their task of understanding the wealth of ethnopharmacological knowledge acquired over the millenia in China.
The
Fishes and the Forest.
Explorations
in Amazonian
Natural History
by Michael Goulding; published by University of California Press, Berkeley, California, 1981; xii + 280 pp., illustrated with 56 line drawings and 74 half tones; price $20.00. There is so much novel and fundamental information packed into this book and so much original thought and theory running through its pages 0
Elsevier
Sequoia/Printed
in The Netherlands
122
that a review worthy of the volume is well-nigh impossible. Suffice it to say that Goulding’s contribution represents one of the outstanding studies of the century concerning the Amazon. For he has succesfully carried out what so many specialists fail to do - he has looked at nature in the Amazon as an interacting whole. And in doing this, he has not only focussed attention on the complex and delicate environment of this greatest of hot humid forests, but he has, it is to be hoped, nudged ecological studies out of their usual compartmentalization. Goulding shows the intimate interdependences of the animal and plant kingdoms - especially the utter dependency of many of the fish upon the flood forest and many of the seeds that annually fall into the water at flood period. But in showing this interactivity, Goulding marshals a bewilderingly complex bevy of facts which only an astute observer and one in love with the Amazon itself could muster. The book covers a wealth of material divided into thirteen sections: rivers, floodplains and flooded forests; fish diversity; the nature of fish migrations; the fruit- and seed-eating large characins; eating pa&-characins; fruits, seeds, insects and the pectoral fin; pirafias; characins of the Anostomidae; predators that swallow their prey whole; catfishes; the osteoglossids; interactions of fishes with fruits and seeds; the foods of Amazon fishes. It is not only the author who must be complimented on this fine production. The Instituto National de Pesquisas da Amazonia (INPA), a Brazilian government institution in the heart of the Amazon dedicated to true scientific research, and its director and staff deserve great credit for encouraging this type of investigation which is basic to any effective conservation. Anyone who has ever carried out research in the Amazon, anyone who has ever travelled in the Amazon, anyone who ever plans to go to the Amazon must read and re-read this volume. Toxic Plants edited by A. Douglas Kinghorn; published by Columbia New York, 1979; xii + 195 pp.; price $21.50
University
Press,
The results of a symposium held during the 18th Annual Meeting of the Society for Economic Botany in Miami in 1977, this volume contains eight contributions by nine experts. They represent rather survey presentations with much of the material new and unpublished. The eight contributions cover a broad range: problems of plant poisons (Kingsbury); toxic mushrooms (Hatfield); solanaceous and liliaceous toxins and teratogens (Keeler) ; pokeweed (McPherson) ; toxic ornamental plants (Der Marderosian and Roia); cocarcinogenic irritant Euphorbiaceae (Kinghom); toxic Anacardiaceae (Baer); composites and contact hypersensitivity and photodermatitis (Towers). All of the contributors are leaders in their respective fields.
of Ethnopharmacology,
6 (1982)
121
121
- 126
Book Reviews
An Enumeration
of Chinese
Materia Medica
by Shiu-ying Hu; published by Chinese University 1980; xxiv + 287 pp.; price $21.50.
Press, Hong Kong,
Naturally, those parts of the world with the oldest cultural history and traditions usually have the most extensive medicinal use of the natural vegetation. It is not surprising, therefore, that China takes a place of preeminence in this respect. The recent increase in the western world of interest in China and Chinese culture has engendered an upsurge of interest in the ethnopharmacological knowledge of ancient and modern Chinese civilizations. It is, therefore, heartening that a botanist, Dr. Shiu-ying Hu, with assistance from pharmacologists, has been willing to devote endless hours to the preparation of this volume: a key that unlocks the vast wealth of medicines employed in China. The variety and amount of information contained in this book are incredible. It has been excellently organized: an alphabetical list of Chinese medicines with botanical and English names, all arranged according to pharmaceutical usage; a systematic arrangement of native medicinal plants, animals and minerals, and several useful appendices. The volume ends with an index of Chinese names. The paper, printing and bindings are of an unusually high quality, I know of few people better equipped to elaborate such a book than Dr. Hu. She has dedicated a life to Chinese botany and has worked in the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, one of the institutions with outstanding facilities for the study of Asiatic floras. This contribution will long serve botanists, pharmacologists and chemists in their task of understanding the wealth of ethnopharmacological knowledge acquired over the millenia in China.
The
Fishes and the Forest.
Explorations
in Amazonian
Natural History
by Michael Goulding; published by University of California Press, Berkeley, California, 1981; xii + 280 pp., illustrated with 56 line drawings and 74 half tones; price $20.00. There is so much novel and fundamental information packed into this book and so much original thought and theory running through its pages 0
Elsevier
Sequoia/Printed
in The Netherlands
122
that a review worthy of the volume is well-nigh impossible. Suffice it to say that Goulding’s contribution represents one of the outstanding studies of the century concerning the Amazon. For he has succesfully carried out what so many specialists fail to do - he has looked at nature in the Amazon as an interacting whole. And in doing this, he has not only focussed attention on the complex and delicate environment of this greatest of hot humid forests, but he has, it is to be hoped, nudged ecological studies out of their usual compartmentalization. Goulding shows the intimate interdependences of the animal and plant kingdoms - especially the utter dependency of many of the fish upon the flood forest and many of the seeds that annually fall into the water at flood period. But in showing this interactivity, Goulding marshals a bewilderingly complex bevy of facts which only an astute observer and one in love with the Amazon itself could muster. The book covers a wealth of material divided into thirteen sections: rivers, floodplains and flooded forests; fish diversity; the nature of fish migrations; the fruit- and seed-eating large characins; eating pa&-characins; fruits, seeds, insects and the pectoral fin; pirafias; characins of the Anostomidae; predators that swallow their prey whole; catfishes; the osteoglossids; interactions of fishes with fruits and seeds; the foods of Amazon fishes. It is not only the author who must be complimented on this fine production. The Instituto National de Pesquisas da Amazonia (INPA), a Brazilian government institution in the heart of the Amazon dedicated to true scientific research, and its director and staff deserve great credit for encouraging this type of investigation which is basic to any effective conservation. Anyone who has ever carried out research in the Amazon, anyone who has ever travelled in the Amazon, anyone who ever plans to go to the Amazon must read and re-read this volume. Toxic Plants edited by A. Douglas Kinghorn; published by Columbia New York, 1979; xii + 195 pp.; price $21.50
University
Press,
The results of a symposium held during the 18th Annual Meeting of the Society for Economic Botany in Miami in 1977, this volume contains eight contributions by nine experts. They represent rather survey presentations with much of the material new and unpublished. The eight contributions cover a broad range: problems of plant poisons (Kingsbury); toxic mushrooms (Hatfield); solanaceous and liliaceous toxins and teratogens (Keeler) ; pokeweed (McPherson) ; toxic ornamental plants (Der Marderosian and Roia); cocarcinogenic irritant Euphorbiaceae (Kinghom); toxic Anacardiaceae (Baer); composites and contact hypersensitivity and photodermatitis (Towers). All of the contributors are leaders in their respective fields.