RllODORA, Vol. 104, No. 917, 96-99. 2002 pp. BOOK REVIEW Lichens of Norlh America by Irwin M. Brodo, Sylvia Duran Shar- + nott\ and Stephen Shainoff. 2001 xxiii 795 color pp. illus. . ISBN photos, line drawings, and dot distribution maps. 0- New 300-08249-5 $69.95 (hardcover). Yale University Press, Haven, CT. Lichens, lowly, unlovely hchens arc the unlikely topic the o(" volume hand. Lichens North America production of pure at of a is manner visual splendor. It brings lichens to lite in a that will not soon be matched. the result of the prodigious effort, sublmie It is and singular devotion of Stephen Sharnoff and artistry, the late Duran whose Sylvia Sharnoff, photographs of lichens are the best have ever seen. Their co-author, Irwin Brodo, wrote the accom- I panying descriptions and commentary for the photographs, nearly every one of which small masterpiece. Whether a a close- is is it up shot or a portrait of lichens in their natural habitat, each image invites the reader appreciate, to touch, even to smell the t(^ li- my own chens. Having attempted on over the past two decades am photograph and to lichens, thrilled with yes, a jealous T little the success of the images on these pages. of, An introduction of over one hundred pages precedes the main (taxonomic) part of the Each chapter the introduction text. oi^ message starts with an epigram, sending a potent that implies the importance of lichens in literature and in natural history. While Browning they are the subject of soliloquies by the likes of and Thoreau, lichens have, in fact, been relatively neglected over the past couple of centuries by the scientific community. The intro- wrong duction attempts to right this with succinct discussions of lichen mort^hology, chemistry, biogeography, and classification, However, reproduction. the attempt less than successful, least is at from The problem a scientific perspective. greatest that the is issues raised in the introduction are not treated in sufficient depth. The chapters, which are generally well written, correspond an to abbreviated of references (not cited in the text) that are found list at the back of the book. The bibliography much too short. Little is way new many in the of literature offered, and of the sources is date from the 1970s and "80s, the height of co-author Brodo's lichenological career. For example, the chapter on the geography of North American The lichens offers less than ten references. 96 Book Review 97 20021 authors defend unwarranted brevity with the rationahzation this and pubh- that the references are general that "sixty-five other cations were consulted." The fact that none of these pubhcations was cited for the benefit of interested readers a hint that Lichens is of North America less than a serious scientific contribution. is One of the high points of the introduction a chapter offering is useful hints for observing and collecting lichens. Another short human winsome chapter on uses of hchens uses photographs to much most the but of the chapter, like of the dia- illustrate text, The grams book, has been served up previous works. in the in rewarming number too-selective bibliography and the of a of old (some of which were previously redrawn from lichen illustrations book even earlier sources) provide further hints that this fails to attain a certain hoped-for standard of scientific relevance. Tn all fairness, should be noted that for the libraries of undergraduate it students and for an apparently growing audience of amateur li- book good chenologists, the will provide a reference, or at least a starting point. Why do authors classify the growth forms of lichens as still human and Perhaps a need, crustose, foliose, fruticose'.^ fulfills it articulated by Plato, to construct a world of ideals and essences. and Unfortunately, the organismic world defies such a construct, when comes more most organisms lichens are frustrating than it to pigeonholing their morphological characteristics. Yet, co-au- thor Brodo has attempted just In view of his wide experience this. more with lichens, one wishes that he would have offered us a we perspective on lichen form, but are disappointed again critical by a facile account of the gross anatomy of lichens, and by the authors' insistence on redrawing figures from earlier texts that are own was Perhaps perfectly accessible in their right. the intent to attract future scholars to the lichen world. Perhaps the authors who may hoped engage an audience of amateurs lack access to to a good scientific library, but with the sumptuous photographs we found throughout the text, fear that Brodo and his co-authors have gilded the would have been far better to the orig- let lily. It own photographs story of inal, beautiful in this text tell their form. lichen which Sadly, abbreviation must suffice in this book, turns out be more a digest of the North American lichens than a scientific to name For example, to find the author of a of a species, treatise. which might give a serious student a handle on taxonomic con- 98 Rhodora 104 |Vol. cepts and history, one has to dig throngh the index. That problem surmountable with encnigh ambition and patience. Other omis- is more sions are serious. Abbreviation, especially taxonomic ac- in counts, misleads readers by providing an incomplete of picture the extent and background of the species. The problem nowhere is more palpable than the taxonomic section of book, where in this the authors have simply excluded hundreds of species from the dichotomous keys and their attendant descriptions. can only 1 speak to the veracity of treatment given the lichen family Cla- my which doniaceae, has been focus of study for almost twenty As years. elsewhere the the photographs of Cladonia in text, li- How- chens and range from their allies excellent to breathtaking. new by excluding over dozen ever, a species his account, Bro- in C do has taken us back taxonomically 1978, when verruculosa to was recognized North American as a distinct entity the lichen in The many flora. insensitivity of excluding so species that have been recognized since the 1970s inexcusable, notwithstand- late is am many ing the fact that the author of of them! Other authors I of Chidonia and other genera were Brodo and also ignored, but his collaborators have provided little or no hint as to what else They there/' have apparently been about is ''out selective their maps distribution as well. At least the Cladoniacae, seems in it that the authors have chosen to ignore several recent accounts of biogcography the of the group. It will be up to future generations of readers to fmd the lacunae They mem- book. may, however, be by in this distracted trying to ''common names" orize the specious, insulting have been that appended The taxa described within. authors have done to a real disservice lichcnology by imposing cloying to their appellations on Need names ''pompon shadow ^^ readers. refer to the lichen, 1 foam "changing "finger-scale or earthscale" under- lichen,'' to stand the crust see on a rock? Does anyone's appreciation of I nature benefit from the authors' misleading anthropomorphisms "rough like eyelash lichen" or "split-peg soldiers"? Ultimately, North Aiuerica Lic/jcjis of a scientific disappointment. hasten is T add everyone to that not requires scientific accuracy to get a kick out of nature. This handsome volume will be sure to delight the who may eye of anyone opens indeed inspire further nature It it. study, though large format would tend to take up too much its room on a field trip. At just shy o[ seventy dollars the book a is who and you buy someone real bargain, suggest for likes I it Book Review 99 2002] more of Larger than a stocking- than just pretty pictures nature. and eminently more valuable, Lichens of North America stuffer soon take place as the foremost introductory text to the will its lichens of this continent. In spite of its shortcomings, it is sure to find pkice on the shelves and in the laboratories of lichen- its around world. oloeists the — Common- Samucl Hammer, College of General Studies, 871 MA Avenue, Boston Boston, 02215. University, w^ealth