1982] AUSTIN: OPERCULINA 269

Dasgupta, S. 1932. A History of Indian Philosophy. University Press, Cambridge. Dymock, W. 1883. The Vegetable Materia Medica of Western India. Education Society Press, Bom-

bay. Fosberg, F. R., and M.-H. Sachet. 1977. Flora of Micronesia, 3: Convolvulaceae. Smithsonian Contr.

Bot. 36: 1-34. Linnaeus, C. 1753. Species Plantarum. Fascimile reprinted (1957) by the Ray Society, London. Ooststroom, S. J., van. 1953. Convolvulaceae. In C. G. G. J. van Steenis. Flora Malesiana, ser. 1,

4(4): 388-513. Rosengarten, F., Jr. 1969. The Book of Spices. Livingston, Wynnewood, PA. Roxburgh, W. 1820. Flora Indica. W. Carey and N. Wallich, ed. Reprinted (1975) by Oriole Editions,

New York. Swatek, F. E. 1967. Textbook of Microbiology. Mosby, St. Louis, MO. Verdcourt, B. 1963. Convolvulaceae. In C. E. Hubbard and E. Milne-Redhead. Flora of Tropical

East Africa. Crown Agents for Oversea Governments and Administrations, London. Walker, B. 1968. The Hindu World. 2 voi. Praeger, New York. Watt, G. 1889. A Dictionary of the Economic Plants of India. Vol. 4. Reprinted 1972, Dehra Dun.

Book Review

Seed to Civilization. The Story of Food. Charles B. Heiser, Jr. 2nd ed. 254 pp. illus. W. H. Freeman and Company, San Francisco, 1981. $9.95 (paper), $19.95 (hardbound).

I t 's hard to think of anyone who wouldn't enjoy and learn from this account of the most important human foods. The text is admirably clear and nontechnical and loaded with pertinent photographs, drawings, and tables. And certainly the domestication of plants and animals is a s i n e q u a n o n of the origin and development of civilization.

Heiser begins with the beginnings of agriculture in the Near East around 8000 B.C. and independently in the New World somewhat later. Archeological evidence reveals what plants came under domestication first but little to clarify the mystery of why or how plants were initially cultivated. The next chapter presents some basic facts about what kinds of foods give us what kinds of food value. This consideration of nutrition is essential to an appreciation of the bulk of the book, in which Heiser covers the uses, nutritional value, natural history, origin, cultural differences, and ecological significance of the major foods. Meats, grasses, legumes, and the coconut each get a chapter, and various other foods are lumped into groups (e.g., starchy staples, oils, and sugar). What makes these chapters of such innate interest are the new perspectives and fascinating details about the most mun- dane of things.

Heiser follows with a chapter on techniques and possibilities of breeding improved kinds of plants and animals. His final chapter gives a sobering outlook on human hunger and on our prospects in the face of a burgeoning world population, the energy shortage, and shrinking agricultural land.

This edition, considerably expanded and updated from the first (1973), will be of interest to those familiar with the first.

CHRISTOPHER CAMPBELL, RUTGERS UNIVERSITY, NEWARK, NJ 07021