BR Plants of The Gods

BOOK REVIEW
Plants of the Gods: Their Sacred, Healing and Hallucinogenic Powers. Richard
Evans Schultes and Albert Hofmann [reprint of 1979 edition]. Rochester, Ver~
mont: Healing Arts Press, 1992. Pp. 192. U.S.$19.95 (paperback), ISBN
0·89281-406-3.
We have here a facsimile reproduction of Richard Evans Schultes and Albert

Hofmann's classic 1979 "coffee-table" book on entheogens, Plants of the Gods
(Schultes and Hofmann 1979) with the only alteration being a new cover and
front matter, along with a new subtitle, Their Sacred, Healing and Hallucinogenic
Powers (the dedication to Heinrich Kluver has also been removed). The text and
numerous color and black-and-white photographs and illustrations have been
well printed in Italy on excellent paper, and bound with a durable, sew·and~
glue binding. It is indeed fortunate that this facsimile has appeared, as the
original edition, published nearly simultaneously with Hofmann's memoirs
(Hofmann 1980) and R. Gordon Wasson's The Wondrous Mushroom (Wasson
1980), was remaindered together with these two books shortly after release,
Summer 1994 JOURNAL OF ETHNOBlOLOGY 133
owing to internal problems with the publisher, McGraw-Hill. This cut short the
shelf-life of a truly excellent book, which now enjoys a new lease on life. The
original edition was patterned after a lovely twin book, Medicines from the Earth
(Thomson 1978).
Introductory sections on the botany, chemistry and geography of entheogenic
plants are followed by a "Plant Lexicon" with single-column entries (some
double-sized) for 91 species, each with a color illustration (mainly superb color
drawings, but 15 with excellent color photographs), botanical name and family,
geographic range, and a paragraph of text giving mainly botanical information,
but with some phytochemical and ethnobotanical data as well. A 14-page table
lists the same 91 species in alphabetical order by common names (in the lexicon,
they are listed in alphabetical order based on Latin names), with sections giving
scientific names, history and ethnography, context and purpose of use, manner of
preparation, and phytochemistry and pharmacology for each species. Short chap-
ters on "Fourteen Major Hallucinogenic Plants" make up the bulk of the book.
These chapters are: 1) "Mainstay of the Heavens" (Amanita musco.ria (L. ex Fr.]
Persoon ex Gray); 2) "The Hexing Herbs" (Atropa, Hyoscyamus, Mandragora spe-
cies); 3) "The Nectar of Delight" (Cannabis species); 4) "St. Anthony's Fire" (Clavi-
ceps purpurea [Fr.l Tulasne); 5) "Holy Flower of the North Star" (Datura species); 6)
"Guide to the Ancestors" (Tabernanthe iboga BailIon); 7) "Beans of the Hekula
Spirit" (Anadenanthera species); 8) "Vine of the Soul" (Banisteriopsis species); 9)
"Trees of the Evil Eagle" (Brugmansia species); 10) "The Tracks of the Little Deer"
(Lophophora williamsii ILem.] Coulter); 11) "Little Flowers of the Gods" (Psilocybe
and other species of psilocybian mushrooms); 12) "Cactus of the Four Winds"
(Trichocereus pachanoi Brit. et Rose); 13) "Vines of the Serpent" (Ipomoea violacea L
and Turbina corymbosa IL] Raf.); and 14) "Semen of the Sun" (Virola species). These
chapters, superbly illustrated with black-and-white photographs and botanical
illustrations of the respective plants, also feature maps shOWing distribution of
traditional use, and superb photographs of use and preparation of these drugs,
together with woodcuts and manuscript illustrations of entheogen-inspired art,
pictures of shamans, deities, and drug paraphernaIia,-a veritable artistic trea-
sure-trove. The accompanying text of each chapter details the history and eth-
nobotany of each category of sacred inebriant, and each chapter has a brief
sidebar on the chemistry and pharmacology of the active principles. A 4-page
chapter on chemistry is also illustrative-it depicts colored. ball-and-stick molecu-
lar models of 8 important hallucinogenic compounds and of 2 neurotransmitters
for comparison purposes. Unfortunately, a glaring error in the original book (the
transposition of the figure legends for iso-LSD and lysergic acid hydroxy-ethy-
lamide on page 175) has not been corrected here. The last chapter on the "Uses of
Hallucinogens in Medicine" presents a dozen colorful drawings made by psychi-
atric patients treated with LSD, and is followed by an epilogue, the author's salute
to four pioneering predecessors in the study of shamanic inebriants-Ernst
Freiherrn von Bibra, Mordecai Cubitt Cooke, Karl Hartwich and Louis Lewin. A
79-source "Further Reading" list is followed by credits to the numerous photo-
graphs and a detailed four-and-a-half-page index.
Withal, the quality is commensurate with that of the original $34.95 cloth-
bound edition, and Healing Arts Press is to be commended for somehow produc-
13. BOOK REVIEWS Vol. 14, NO.1
ing this superb facsimile of the original, lavishly~iIlustrated book, 13 inflationary

years later, for the incredibly low price of $19.95, the only palpable difference
between the two editions being the hard and soft cover. In an era in which the
average scientific book in natural sciences, many of which lack illustrations or
decent design and typography, is priced at $79.00 (Anon. 1994), this ranks as one
of the best book bargains to be found. While Plants of the Gods is dearly directed
toward the layperson. it contains many nuggets of ethnobotanical data of compel-
ling interest to the specialist, which are not to be found in any other publication
by either author. It isn't often that we get a second chance to purchase an impor-
tant book, and this is a chance no ethnobiologist interested in shamanic inebriants
can afford to pass up!
LITERATURE CITED
ANON. 1994. Prices of books. Science 263; THOMSON, WILLlAM A. R., Ed. 1978.
105. Medicines from the Earth; A Guide 10
HOFMANN, ALBERT (Trans. by J. Ott). Healing Plants. McGraw·HiII, New
1980. LSD: My Problem Child. Mc- York.
Graw-Hill, New York. WASSON, R. GORDON. 1980. The Won-
SCHULTES, RICHARD EVANS and AL- drous Mushroom; Myrolatry in Meso-
BERT HOFMANN. 1979. Plants of the america. McGraw-Hili, New York.
Gods; Origins of Hallucinogenic Use.
McGraw·HilI, New York. Jonathan Ott
Natural Products Co.
Apartado Postal 274
Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico

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BOOK REVIEW

We have here a facsimile reproduction of Richard Evans Schultes and Albert

ing this superb facsimile of the original, lavishly~iIlustrated book, 13 inflationary

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