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Evolutionary Studies in World Crops: Diversity and Change in the Indian Subcontinent . Ed. Sir Joseph Hutchinson. Cambridge University Press: London and New York (1974), pp. 183, £3.80

This volume results from a symposium held in New Delhi in 1970. The structure of both symposium and book reflects the editor's fascination with the diversity of crops grown in India and the range of evolutionary situations that they illustrate. The stage is set by a review of the archaeological record of crop plants in India by Vishnu-Mittre, incorporating much recent work not readily available in the West. A picture is emerging of initial introduction of cereal and legume cultivation from south-west Asia, subsequent domestication of indigenous Indian cultigens and later addition of crops from south-east Asia, Africa, and finally the New World. The main body of the book consists of chapters on individual crops, selected to represent these diverse geographical origins and written by the appropriate Indian authorities. Because the emphasis is on evolutionary diversity, minor crops such as Job's tears (Coix) and Solanum nigrum are included as well as staples such as wheat, barley, rice and maize. No uniform format has been imposed, so some chapters have a biosystematic bias bringing out, for example, the need for taxonomists to look again at yet another pair of legume genera (Cajanus and Atylosia), while others stress phylogeny (the review of evolution in the genus Oryza), cytogenetics (okra; rape and mustard) or agronomy (discussions of wheat and barley in relation to the Indian environment and breeding for Indian conditions). The volume is rounded off by two most stimulating chapters by Sir Joseph Hutchinson on crop plant evolution in the Indian subcontinent and on the challenge of the New Agriculture in India. Altogether the book constitutes a useful source of out-of-the-way information from various fields, pertaining to a part of the world which has seldom received more than lip service in discussions on the evolution and spread of crops. This neglect can now be redressed.