The Nature Pages from Outrider

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	Agaves of Continental North America by Howard Scott Gentry University of Arizona Press, 2004
	Originally published in 1982, and now available in paperback for the first time, this is the most authoritative reference to a group of plants that have widely used by the people of Mesoamerica for thousands of years and which are a mainstay for man y desert gardeners.
	The late Howard Scott Gentry (1903-1993), recognized as the world's leading authority on agaves, based the detailed taxonomy in this volume on 25 years of personal research, covering 136 species in 20 generic groups.
	"Agaves are unique in the whole plant world, not merely because of their succulent character but because of a special role they have played in the indigenous civilizations in North America," Gentry explains in his preface. His opening chapter on "The Man-Agave Symbiosis" describes the many historical uses of agaves as food, beverage, paper, fiber and medicine. Group and species descriptions also include discussions of edibility and uses.
	Certainly an important volume for professional taxonomists, this new edition makes Gentry's excellent guide more accessible to succulent plant fanciers, amateur botanists and home gardeners..