Seed Dispersal by David R. Murray; Advances in Ecological Research, Volume 16 by A.MacFadyen; E. D. FordReview by: E. Charles NelsonThe Irish Naturalists' Journal, Vol. 22, No. 11 (Jul., 1988), p. 504Published by: Irish Naturalists' Journal Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25539292 .

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504 Ir. Nat. J. Vol. 22 No. 11 1988

An Irish Herbal: Botanalogia Universalis Hibernica by John K'Eogh. Edited by Michael Scott. The Aquarian Press, Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, England. Paperback ?4.99 stg.

This is a modern edition of K'Eogh's herbal of 1735. K'Eogh was chaplain to Lord Kingston of Mitchelstown

and pursued interests in medicine, natural history and antiquarianism. The herbal is little more than a curiosity

being largely a derivative work, relying heavily on earlier herbals, notably than of Culpepper (1652). It considers

both native plants and those introduced and cultivated in Ireland. Over five hundred plants are listed using

contemporary English and pre-Linnaean scientific names. For each plant, there is a brief description of its

appearance, habitat and medicinal uses.

Even in Ireland, the herbal seems to have been little used. Mary Delaney, writing in 1763, was still using the

herbal of Gerard (1597) together with the more recent and practical work of John Hill (1754). In the nineteenth

century; the herbal was denounced as a "pompously named, useless work". There seems little call for a new

edition.

In editing the original, Michael Scott has re-written the work in an English more intelligible to the modern

reader. Unfortunately in the process he has lost some of the colour of the language and introduced some

inaccuracies. The edition is considerably abridged and to my mind some of the most interesting material has been

lost. It would have been useful to provide everyday Irish and English names for the plants together with the current

scientific usage. A very serious criticism is the failure to indicate in the text those herbal cures which are considered unsafe or

dangerous in modern herbal medicine. Skipping through the pages, I came across some forty cures which have

either been abandoned as too dangerous or are used only in strictly limited circumstances by experienced herbalists. The lack of guidance from the editor in this matter means that the book should be used only with the

utmost caution as a practical herbal.

The book is attractively produced and well printed with many line drawings. It will not satisfy the specialist who will want to study the unabridged original. The layman or novice herbalist will find it little more than a litany of often unrecognisable plants, unpleasant symptoms and desperate remedies.

BRIAN OTTWAY

Seed dispersal, edited by David R. Murray. 1986. Academic Press Australia, Sydney. 322 pp. UK?41.50.

Advances in ecological research, volume 16, edited by A. Macfadyen and E. D. Ford. 1987. Academic Press,

London. 334 pp. UK?48.50.

These two volumes contain review essays by research scientists on a diverse range of ecological topics which

intermesh in the discussion of the dispersal of plants. David Murray has assembled contributions that will be of considerable value to botanists interested in seed

biology, and I can recommend this volume as a text not just for fellow researchers, but also for undergraduates. There is a southern hemisphere bias evident in Seed dispersal, but that should not deter botanists for the 'Old

World'. The book begins with a study by F. M. Burrows on The aerial motion of seeds, fruits, spores and pollen', in which mathematical models for such natural phenomena as leaf flutter, 'splash-cups', and the flight of winged seeds are elegantly explained. Murray's own contribution concerns dispersal by water, and includes recent

information on tropical disseminules on beaches in Britain and Ireland. The roles of rodents and of fruit-eating animals are treated in separate chapters, and there is a discussion of seed dispersal in relation to fire; this latter essay

might not seem relevant to Irish natural history, but R. J. Whelan does stress that the updraught caused by a fire is

very substantial so even fires on Irish moors may contribute to the dispersal of plants. The final contribution in this

stimulating volume is a discussion by B. H. Tiffney on the fossil evidence for the evolution of seed dispersal

syndromes. One of the chapters in David Murray's book is by D. J. O'Dowd and A.M. Gill, and concerns the dispersal

syndromes of seeds of Acacia in Australia; ants are implicated in the dispersal of 74% of the arillate Acacia species studied by the authors. The relationship between plants and ants is also the subject of one of the contributions (R

Buckley, 'Ant-plant-homopteran interactions') in the second volume being reviewed here. This book contains a

much more diverse series of essays as it is not focused on a specific ecological topic. Of particular interest to Irish

ecologists is the review of 'Vegetation, fire and herbivore interactions in heathland' by R. J. Hobbs and C. H.

Gimingham; the effects of fire in heathland management and the population dynamics of animals (e.g. red grouse,

deer, hares) are discussed, and there are brief sections on the use of heathlands in recreation and the conservation of

heathlands. The three remaining contributions are entitled 'Nutrient cycles and H+ budgets of forest ecosystems'

(D. Binkley and D. Richter), 'Developments in ecophysiological research on soil invertebrates' (E. N. G. Joosse

and H. A. Verhoef), and 'Principles of predator-prey interaction in theoretical, experimental and natural

population systems' (E. Kuno). As is usual in such review volumes the essays do not report the results of new

research, but they provide most useful summaries of recent work and excellent bibliographies which permit access

to a wide spectrum of information.

These books certainly should be made available in university libraries, and perhaps they will serve to

stimulate research by the new generation of Irish ecologist into topics that have been neglected here. For example, I

have been intrigued by the conspicuous mounds of fine soil, undoubtedly both active and abandoned ants nests,

that abound in certain parts of the Burren, County Clare; reading the essays concerning ants in these review

volumes. I wonder how many native flowering plants are adapted for dispersal by ants and whether these soil heaps have a particular flora?

E. CHARLES NELSON

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