Food In The Wilderness by George W. Martin and Robert W. Scott. Bremerton, Washington. 1963, 54 + 14 pages, about 60 line drawings. No price stated.

This interesting booklet gives recipes for preparing many common plants and their products. Some of the items that are not often eaten include acorns, camas roots, clover flowers, dock, lichens, and thistle roots. Other items in the book, such as blackberries, huckleberries, and wild strawberries, scarcely need an introduction to hikers. The inclusion of bracken fern (Pteris aquilina) may be questionable since bracken fern poisoning has been described in livestock, and the toxic factor was found to be stable to heat. Overconsumption of avalanche lilies, glacier liles, and tiger lilies might infringe the laws that protect wild flowers, and the eater thereof should be prepared to defend his actions as arising from an emergency. The authors recommend waiting eight hours, after consuming a small quantity of an unrecognized food, to see if gastrointestinal symptoms develop. Good advice!

Thomas H. Jukes