Chicago Botanic Garden

Education — Lenhardt Library

Current Books & Book Reviews

PHOTO: bookcover

Peter Blackburne-Maze.
Fruit: An Illustrated History.
Buffalo, N.Y.: Firefly Books, 2003.
cloth, 335 p., ISBN 1–552–97780–3, $60.00.

Only a dedicated fruit enthusiast would take on such a challenging task of writing about the history and culture of such a broad topic. Focusing on four general classifications — pome, stone, berry and exotic — he traces their global evolution, using 300 illustrations from the artworks and rare books in the Lindley Library of the Royal Horticultural Society. It is rather surprising to find that grapes are classified among the "exotic" fruit, for these have a long history of cultivation in Western civilization.

Although author Peter Blackburne-Maze is able to provide an in-depth history of those fruits with which he is most familiar and whose history is well documented, the text that covers information about exotic fruits is necessarily brief because of their more clouded backgrounds. Space limitations prevent the author from relating many fascinating stories about how individual fruits from abroad came to be introduced as green cargoes into commerce. Many interesting fruits that are generally not in commercial use, such as the American Paw-Paw, are not included. A valuable addition is a list of biographies of those who played an important role in fruit cultivation, including but not limited to botanists, artists, journalists and nurserymen.

— Marilyn K. Alaimo, garden writer and volunteer, Chicago Botanic Garden.