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Watsonia 23, 349-358 Watsonia 23: 349-358 (2000) 349 Book Reviews A Rum Affair. Karl Sabbagh. Pp. ix + 223. AlIen Lane, The Penguin Press, 1999. £16.99, ISBN 0-713-99277-8. Karl Sabbagh is a Cambridge graduate and a television producer but not a botanist. This is a book about a botanist, about the unmasking by fellow botanists of fraudulent botanical records made by Professor J. W. Heslop Harrison in the Hebrides during his pioneering researches there with students from Newcastle University in the period 1935-5l. In particular, it focuses on the part played by J. E. Raven and his visit to Rum in 1948, after he had been let down by the distinguished botanists that it was originally planned would accompany him. Raven found persuasive circumstantial evidence of plants being fraudulently introduced which he wrote up in a riveting manuscript that he brought back to his fellow dons at Kings College, Cambridge, where it was hushed up for 50 years. John Raven, the kindest and most sensitive of people and an expert and meticulous botanist found himself in the most invidious position. He alone of all those who had doubted Heslop Harrison's records had found evidence of fraud in the field, others just failed to refind the plants and insects claimed by Heslop Harrison. Raven had been a conscientious objector in the war, he would never have launched a personal vendetta. Sabbagh has taken the trouble to research the nature of botanists, and field botanists in particular, he perceives that "botany is very different to a love of cultivating plants. In fact, there seems sometimes to be very little overlap" and, quoting from John Raven's friend, Tim Clutton­ Brock, "my impression is that botanists are really fascinated with the details and the facts, whereas zoologists like working in bigger, broader-brush, theoretical frameworks". Heslop Harrison came to zoology before botany. Sabbagh's perceptions of us botanists, and his misconceptions, are refreshing, though some of the misconceptions might have been avoided if his research had included a day on a B.S.B.I. field meeting where he would have learnt an appreciation of the endless scope for errors in fieldwork. The book is a vignette on the social structure of British botany in the nineteen thirties and forties. There are class prejudices, there is the Oxbridge-Redbrick divide, there are amateurs and professionals, there is Rum itself as a personal fiefdom of the Bullough family. There are cliques and rivalries but, transcending all, there is a culture in which there was a great reluctance to expose a fellow scientist especially when he had a family of successful scientists following him. There is much excellent biographical detail not only on the Heslop Harrisons and Ravens but also of other prominent naturalists of the day, including Frank Balfour-Browne, "Willie" Clark, J. E. Dandy, Dick David, E. B. Ford, George Taylor, Max WaIters and A. J. Wilmot. It is not clear if Sabbagh grasps why publication of an expose was in a sense unnecessary. The botanical grapevine was sufficient. The relatively few who had a need to know because it might affect their research were tipped off. Inevitably, the insinuations sometimes suggested too black a picture. Be that as it may, many of Heslop Harrison's "dubious" records have since been refound. Many a botanist has left a trail of dubious records behind him, and much trouble they have caused, but fraud, as such, is usually thought to be rare. Sabbagh studies the motives for scientific fraud, which he illustrates with other examples and suggests it to be much more common than generally thought. Quoting Felix Franks "If ever the delicate balance between making a living, searching for the truth, and obtaining the approbation of one's peers is upset, then there is the danger of deviant science". Nowhere, however, does he suggest that advancing years could have had something to do with it, or that some of the arrogance and dogma with which Heslop Harrison ruled his university department could have affected him under the maxim "power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely". This book is a first rate read, you will not put it down until the end. And, if you are a botanist, you will be left, fraud aside, with personal heart searching as you seek a humble approach to the intractable intricacies of nature. M. E. BRAITHW AITE 350 BOOK REVIEWS A Naturalist's Shetland. J. Laughton Johnston. Pp xii + 506. T. & A. D. Poyser. 1999. £27.95, ISBN 0-85661-105-0. It is some 20 years since the first publication of Sam Berry and Laughton Johnston's monograph on "The Natural History of Shetland" in the Coli ins New Naturalist series. Since then, much has changed in Shetland and much of this change has had a major effect on both the islands' natural heritage and our understanding of it. Of course this change had been largely anticipated at the time of writing, as the oil industry was already having a tremendous impact on the social, environmental and economic fabric of the islands. It is therefore timely that the state of the environment and our knowledge of it should be revisited, and who better than one of the original authors of the New Naturalist book. The book is not simply a re-working of the previous book: indeed it has been thoroughly revised and an enormous amount of new material added, especially information and understanding gained from the many ecological and environmental studies that have taken place in the intervening years. Although the extent and scope of the book remains as broad as it was 20 years ago, the structure of the book remains largely unchanged (despite different chapter headings), moving through the physical influences on the landscape; the history of colonisation; and then on to the nature of the biological communities that make up Shetland's natural environment. The new information is crucial though; for the botanist, the publication of Waiter Scott & Richard Palmer' s The Flowering Plants and Ferns of the Shetland Islands, published in 1987 after the Oliginal New Naturalist volume is a case in point, and Laughton Johnston has incorporated a substantial amount of recent botanical work including the improved understanding of the Alpestria hawkweeds (now 'protected' under the UK. Biodiversity Action Plan) and the many studies on the enigmatic, but endlessly fascinating, serpentinite soils of the Keen of Hamar N.N.R. The final chapter of the book, reflecting perhaps the time we live in, deals with issues of sustainability: issues previously dealt with under the chapter devoted to conservation! The influence of the oil industry on the natural history has been all-pervasive. In some cases the effect has been direct, in terms of built development e.g. the giant oil terminal at Sullom Voe) and the effect of spilt oil on the coastal and marine environments, especially from high profile incidents such as the Esso Bernicia and the Braer. But the oil industry has brought wealth to the islands, which has been used to fund much other change. The influence of grants to the agricultural industry is one of the most noticeable in terms of its impact on Shetland's semi-natural vegetation. Laughton Johnston deals with these subjects effectively, and brings us right up to the present and the challenges that the islands (and their environment) face as we start another century. The book is a tour de force. Its format and presentation have been well thought out, and the insertion of many new figures, sketches, and colour photographs give it a sense of quality that justifies its price. Some of the photographs have been strangely cropped and appear too small, but this rarely detracts from the overall feel of a real gem of a book, that will last well for at least another 20 years. Buy it if you are at all interested in Shetland, or plan to go at some time in the future. There's everything in it that you'd ever want to know about Shetland and a lot more besides! A. DOUSE British Red Data Books 1 Vascular Plants 3rd edition. Compiled and edited by M. J. Wigginton, Pp. 465. J.N.C.C. Peterborough 1999. £30, ISBN 1-86107-451-4. It is 16 years since the publication of the 2nd edition of the Red Data Book for Vascular Plants, and in this time there have been many field surveys, county Floras, and local red data books. The previous slim volume was very much a basic factual account which stimulated more detailed work and helped set the scene for better things to come. This book, with 465 textual pages, expands significantly on the autecology, distribution and changes in populations of the species that have taken place especially in the last 20 years. Comments are also provided on the European or world­ wide status. BOOK REVIEWS 351 The introductory pages set out the background and context of the book and summarise the all­ important data sources. Without accurate record-keeping and meticulous checking, it would not have been possible to produce a meaningful and rigorous account for each species, or the summary tables. Accurate records also provide the essential platform for the analysis of numbers of populations, spatial changes, and colonisation of new areas in a truly scientific, rather than conjectural, manner. There are 289 native or probably native species and subspecies that are considered to be threatened or near-threatened in Britain addressed in this volume, compared with 317 in RDB 2nd edition. This is due to the fact that 44 taxa have been excluded because they are non-native, introduced, casual, escaped, varieties, hybrids or of dubious status.
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