BOOK REVIEWS

ceptible and appreciable contribution for course that has no bearing with primary
the book has come from the paintings of focus of the book, is the usage of plant
Nirupa Rao, a young explorer and winner names without citing the authority. Only
of numerous fellowships (National Geo- generic name was given in case of Syzy-
graphic Young explorer, 2017, INK fel- gium but the drawings presented can be
lowship, 2018 and Plant Humanities safely correlated to three species as for
fellowship at Dumbarton oaks, 2019). the fruits are concerned; Syzygium lae-
Her illustrations numbering 30 with me- tum (Buch.-Ham.) Gandhi (yellow-green
ticulous details and soothing colours, pear-shaped fruit, page 40), and S. he-
particularly habit sketches, are unques- misphericum (Wight) Alston (spherical
tionably brilliant. The presented text in fruit, page 41) and S. cumini (L.) Skeels
the publication is greatly reinforced with (somewhat elliptic purple fruit, page 41).
these beautiful paintings. We are certain The importance of the book is claimed
these paintings would be appreciated based on low level of awareness/
greatly by botanical art lovers and knowledge on trees of India and the book
emerging botanical artists. In our inquisi- is said to be focused on ‘30 little known
tiveness, these paintings have been com- trees’. But honestly, all of them are well-
Pillars of Life: Magnificient Trees of pared with the Icons/illustrations known and well established in botanical
the Western Ghats. Divya Mudappa and rendered by renowned botanical artists of literature. While stating so, one should
T. R. Shankar Raman with Botanical Roxburgh of early 19th century (the simultaneously accept that the species
illustrations by Nirupa Rao and sketches Father of Indian Botany) and others. We included are so important and character-
by Sartaj Ghuman, Nature Conservation could reach out to at least 15 illustrations ize/confine/or vividly support wildlife in
Foundation, Mysuru. 2018. xiv + 101 of 11 species namely, Bombax ceiba, the land scape they inhabit.
pages. Price not mentioned. Elaeocarpus munroii, E. serratus, E. tu- The trees dealt in this book are
berculatus, Mesua ferrea, Persea ma- grouped into six themes. This has re-
Trees are vital to uphold a steady and crantha, Sterculia guttata, all three sulted in clustering widely different fam-
congenial climate as they expressively syzygium species (not stated distinctly by ilies. Under land mark trees (for being
contribute to atmospheric oxygen, water the authors) and Toona ciliata (there fairly big in size!), six species namely
conservation and in lessening soil ero- could be more!) which are also dealt in Cullania exarillata A. Robyns (a charac-
sion and in support of wildlife. Their the present publication. Honestly, un- teristic evergreen endemic tree to south-
elegance, grandeur and generosity are named local artists employed by Rox- ern Western Ghats and an important food
documented in numerous articles by pas- burgh and two artists Rungaiah and source for the Lion-tailed Macaque,
sionate tree lovers. The book under re- Govindoo by Robert Wight brought in Malvaceae), Mesua ferrea L. (known for
view is authored by two field biologists, good botany in the illustrations, particu- its graceful shape, colourful young
the first one of them is Divya Mudappa, larly with correct delineations of flowers leaves and fragrant white flowers, Calo-
who specialized in plant–animal interac- and fruits that not many could think of. phyllaceae), Palaquium ellipticum (Dal-
tions and conservation biology while the Hence, these icons/drawings remained in zell) Baill. (an evergreen tree with
second author, T. R. Shankar Raman, good harmony with the text of the floras flowers white and fragrant, Sapotaceae),
specialized in birds and also studies in- attempted then. This was made possible Canarium strictum Roxb. (known for its
volving human interactions with nature. with the constant supervision and guid- commercially valued resin, the black
Thus, both the authors had no training or ance received from the renowned botan- dammar, Burseraceae), Artocarpus hete-
expertise in plant taxonomy which is de- ists to the artists of that time. These rophyllus Lam. (a fast-growing ever-
sirous in endeavouring such a publica- works in course of time turned out to be green tree and valued for its fruits,
tion. In wild world, animals easily catch real foundations of Indian botany. We
the care and curiosity of humans in com- have no intention of comparing the work
parison to trees for reasons that cannot under reference with these classical
be easily listed out. The interest in trees works but would like to emphasize the
requires certain state of mind and dispo- strength of good illustrations when accu-
sition and the authors developed this rately complemented with good botanical
affinity and passion during their profes- texts.
sional field trips. They appeared to have The book under review comparatively
gained versatility with lofty trees and missed some crucial botanical features of
their names by being field biologists flowers and fruits in certain paintings
which has given them the confidence in which are otherwise diagnostic to the
executing the task. In the introduction of species dealt with/concerned. The authors
the book, the authors were utmost reve- did not believe in methodical/systematic
rential, emotive and poignant towards description and followed their own narra-
trees, often citing from the book The tive and lyrical style. This might appeal
Tree: A Natural History of What Trees amateurs and other non-botanists but The beautiful and extravagant flower of
Are, How They Live, and Why They Mat- with missing salient diagnostics of spe- the Bombax attracts many nectar-loving
ter authored by Colin Tudge. More per- cies! The other smaller omission, of birds.

CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 118, NO. 3, 10 FEBRUARY 2020 479

BOOK REVIEWS
Moraceae) and Nageia wallichiana (C. go, Erythrina, probably Eucalyptus? and human condition. Apologies are due to
Persl) Kuntze (a Gymnosperm, the only Prunus ceylanica in the book. The front authors whose excellent work we could
wild conifer of South India with male and back covers of the book are deco- not review due to space constraints.
cones in pedunculate clusters and solita- rated by Canarium strictum and Elaeo- As Boehm et al. (pp. 19–42) discuss,
ry female cone, Podocarpaceae) are in- carpus munroii respectively. The book is the study of the nature of immune de-
cluded. Under hitchhikers (adopted for dedicated to the ‘Trees – the original fence in jawless fish (lampreys and hag-
dispersal of fruits by a variety of ani- landscape historians’ and true to the cap- fish) is instructive from an evolutionary
mals), Bhesa indica (Bedd.) Ding Hou tion, trees are real mute witnesses to all standpoint, because these organisms are
(evergreen tree with white flowers and events that happen in their surroundings. considered representative of early verte-
prominently 2-lobed capsules, Centrop- The book was published by Trail Blazer brates. After early experiments demon-
lacaceae), Semecarpus travancorica India Private Limited, Bangalore, on re- strating the generation of immunological
Bedd. (endemic to the southern Western cycled chlorine free paper. It is a wel- responses (in the form of ≅ 300 kDa an-
Ghats, Anacardiaceae), Dimocarpus lon- come gesture of Nature Conservation tibody-like ‘agglutinins’) subsequent to
gan Lour. (a tree species that produces Foundation that they intend to distribute immunization with foreign moieties, in-
edible fruits, Sapindaceae), Trichilia this book free to schools and colleges, jecting lampreys with plant mitogens and
connaroides (Wight & Arn.) Bentv. (tree plantation managers, and forest offic- antigens has helped enumerate the pres-
with compound leaves, bisexual flowers ers/staff for the cause of awareness and ence of membrane-bound variable lym-
and a globose, bright red, capsule with conservation of these prominent trees of phocyte receptors (VLRs). The highly
an arillate seed, Meliaceae), Actinodaph- Western Ghats. The excellent production diverse sequences that characterize such
nae malabarica N. P. Balakr. (smaller standards further add to its merit to be on VLRs comprise invariant N- and C-
tree, branchlets rusty with simple, sub- the reference shelves of every serious bo- terminal regions flanking intervening re-
verticillate leaves, flowers in fascicles tanical artist and artists with experience gions of variability. Three VLR isotypes
and fruit black, 1-seeded, Lauraceae), and skill in drawing and painting of plant have been characterized (VLRA, VLRB
Cinnamomum malabatrum (Burm. f.) J. habit sketches, flowers and fruits. and VLRC), with each lymphocyte ex-
Persl (tree, tri-nerved leaves young pressing one VLR gene on account of
bright pinkish tinged with yellowish- M. SANJAPPA1,* allelic exclusion, indicating a pattern of
green, and mature ones dark green, dis- P. VENU2 clonal antigen receptor expression akin
tinct thalamus-based fruits green, purple to that seen in jawed vertebrates. While
1
when ripe), Litsea oleoides (Meisner) Mahatma Gandhi Botanical Garden, VLRBs are secreted from cells after an-
Hook.f. (tree, leaves simple, flowers in University of Agricultural Sciences tigen stimulation (as antibodies are from
racemes, fruit depressed globose, 1- GKVK, B cells in jawed vertebrates), VLRAs
seeded, Lauraceae), Persea macrantha Bengaluru 560 065, India and VLRCs remain cell-bound (as do
2
(Nees) Kosterm. (known to be medicinal, Flat 803, Jade Block, TCRs in jawed vertebrates).Precise me-
commercially important tree for its bark, My Home Jewel, Madinaguda, chanisms of negative selection that ena-
native to Western Ghats and Sri Lanka, Hyderabad 500 050, India ble tolerance to self-grafts remain
Lauraceae) and Ormosia travancorica *e-mail: [email protected] unknown. While two genes (CDA1 and
Bedd. (an endemic tree with distinct CDA2), putatively encoding activation-
scarlet seeds, Leguminosae) are in- induced deaminases, have been described
cluded. Under wild Rudraksha (treated in lamprey, formal proof of their
separately for having religious signific- involvement in gene conversion-like
ance), three species namely Elaeocarpus events is awaited. The antibody-like
munroii Mast., E. serratus L. and E. tu- agglutinins that are generated upon im-
berculatus Roxb. are included. Under Annual Review of Immunology, 2018. munization can fix complement to lyse
stranglers included are Ficus macrocar- Dan R. Littman and Wayne M. Yokoya- target cells. Several cytokine and their
pa L.f. and F. tsjahela Burm.f. (inappro- ma (eds). Annual Reviews, 4139 El receptors have been discovered, and
priately, the keystone species had gone Camino Way, P.O. Box 10139, Palo downstream effects are being discerned.
into stranglers group!). The species Alto, California 94303-0139, USA. Vol. Parallels between components of adap-
namely, Bombax insignae Wall., B. ceiba 36. vii + 887 pages. Price: US$ 112. tive immunity between jawed and jaw-
L., Vernonia arborea Buch.-Ham., Too- less vertebrates are suggestive of the
na ciliata M. Roem. and Heritiera papi- As every year, this authoritative collec- existence of a common vertebrate ances-
lio Bedd., with majority of them having tion covers recent advances in immuno- tor.
samaroid fruits, have been placed under logical science. Increasingly, fresh Bangam (pp. 43–71) discusses current
‘blown in the wind group’ (wind as insights into hitherto undiscovered im- knowledge on the biology of human T
medium of dispersal). The group munological processes are powered by cell leukemia virus Type 1 (HTLV-1).
representing sun trees (plants that appear the emergence of new technologies and Interestingly, disease manifests in only
as pioneers in sun-lit gaps of rain forests) approaches. This is an exciting time: The an estimated 5–10% of people who are
are Mallotus tetracoccus (Roxb.) Kurz interval between an advance in the basic infected. Viral transmission occurs via
and Sterculia guttata Roxb. understanding of immune dysfunction sexual intercourse, or upon transfusion
Sartaj Ghuman has drawn five beauti- and the emergence of potential therapeu- with infected blood products; vertical
ful pen sketches of Anamalai landscapes tics is shrinking, which augurs well for transmission through breast milk is also
with buildings and trees of Ficus, Man- interventions aimed at bettering the considered a significant mechanism of

480 CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 118, NO. 3, 10 FEBRUARY 2020