CRC World Dictionary of Medicinal and Poisonous Plants

Following on the successes of two previous dictionary projects, the CRC World Dictionary of Plant Names and the CRC World Dictionary of the Grasses, Umberto Quattrocchi has undertaken this dictionary of economically important plants. Quattrocchi has again shown a broad grasp of the literature, of botanical nomenclature and of many languages to produce this guide to plants that are used by people around the world in medicine, food, and cultural practices. Gathered from many sources we have here a guide to plants that will bring us the pleasure of quickly finding an answer with well-documented sources. Because use in medicine is one of several ways in which this book can inform the reader, Quattrocchi is clear that this work is not to be done on the authority of these listings alone. Sources in some entries are contradictory or missing. In this, one is reminded in the words of Samuel Johnson: “Dictionaries are like watches; the worst is better than none, and the best cannot be expected to go quite true.” He has done for these plants what was so admirably done in his other works — brought the vast and scattered literature on plant names, and in this case their uses, too, into coherent order so that the inquisitive scholar can get a foothold. Who better to undertake this particular challenge? A physician by training Quattrocchi provides concise summaries of plant properties from the literature and offers the appropriate caveats about medical uses. His linguistic skills are evident in his handling of the literature and in the multilingual listings of common names. The derivation of generic names from the standard Greek and Latin are provided, but so, too, are those from many other languages. Having seen the author at work gives me a certain perspective on how this massive compilation could come about. During his several extended visits to the Harvard University Botany Libraries for work on this and his previous projects, I observed the intensity with which he worked. For months at a time he could be found in the reading room among books and journals of many ilk. Despite the focus on this work, he had time for discussion with those who passed through and those who might have a quick question on the state of the world — he is as well a professor of political science. His diligence in compiling his dictionaries is matched by his enthusiasm for the plants themselves, for the authors of the important and sometimes trivial items that he examined, and for the challenge of ferreting out some of the improbable information he presents in these volumes.