Plants of Life, Plants of Death

  • Frederick J. Simoons
University of Wisconsin Press: 1999. 568pp $65, £57.95, (hbk), $34.95, £31.50 (pbk)

Mankind's attitude to the ritual use of plants arose primarily from basic human concerns about life, fertility and death, rather than medicinal or nutritional factors — according to Frederick Simoons, at least.

Cultivated by culture: garlic (top) and mandrake became popular for their ritualistic use. Credit: S. TAYLOR/A-Z BOTANICAL COLLECTION

Simoons, of the University of California, seeks to demonstrate this by accumulating a vast amount of information on holy basil (Ocimum sanctum), sacred figs (Ficus religiosa and F. indica), mandrake (Mandragora officinarum), ginseng (Panax ginseng), garlic (Allium sativum), urd bean (Vigna mungo) and broad (or fava) bean (Vicia faba).

His work is library-based in the tradition of James Frazer's The Golden Bough; little, if, any fieldwork appears to have been undertaken. Of the book's 568 pages, 230 are devoted to notes and bibliography. On the positive side he writes in a clear, jargon-free style. On the negative side, like Frazer, he accumulates so much information that the reader is overwhelmed. In the earlier chapters Simoons himself seems overwhelmed, to the extent that he is reluctant to draw conclusions from his assembled evidence. Perhaps conclusions are there, but they are hard to find.

Simoons is right to challenge the currently prevalent view that mankind's relationship with plants is derived from a plant's economic, nutritive or medicinal value, or its ability to harm. For example, some people did develop favism after consuming broad beans, but this alone was not responsible for the Pythagorean ban on beans: there were more complex cultural reasons. However, his case could have been presented in a more succinct and convincing manner.

A more disciplined approach, which limited the amount of information and gave greater prominence to his hypothesis, would have improved the work and made it more useful. As it is, only the most determined and alert readers will successfully negotiate their way through the often repetitive evidence to reach the valid, but frequently somewhat unrelated, findings.