Hunt Institute Archives Text Discovery Platform

Page transcription

awaits the lucky reader. The ritual, often bizarre uses of Old
World plants belonging to 14 families (including the sacred,
apotheosing mushrooms) are represented in selected passages from
the works of such worthies as Homer, Theophrastus, Herodotus,
Plutarch, Shakespeare, Baudelaire, DeQuincey, Coleridge, Lewin,
Malcom X, and 90 more whose provocative observations have been
ferreted out by the author for our edification and entertainment.
The role of nutmeg, hasheesh, opium, fly agaric, mandrake, kava,
nightshade, thorn apple, and other psychotomimetic plants that
have left their mark in history are illuminated by succinct
quotations from familiar or obscure publications, both ancient
and modern.

The majority of the 14 black and white illustrations (two
transcendent Cocteau drawing are included) are borrowed from
Emboden's well known book on narcotic plants, but of course the
brilliance of the original plates has been lost. It is a minor
mystery (perhaps appropriate in a book filled with witchcraft,
sorcery, and magic) why the author chose to reproduce an
indifferent halftone of Amanita muscaria from an early edition
of Strassburger's famous though somewhat outdated textbook of
botany, when numerous others, far more satisfactory, are now
readily available.

This is a memorable collection of writings from "many a quaint
and curious volume of forgotten lore."

B. Lowy, Botany Department, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge,
LA 70803.