America is well known for the patchwork quilt - interesting fragments of fabric carefully fitted and stitched together, making a useful and pleasing whole. This book was made in America and its title excited me. At last, I thought, someone has had the time and resources to publish a substantial tome in my discipline. Well, some parts of it have been constructed from very good material, but the foundation stitching is poor, and the product does not live up to its title. There is little valuable information on whole organism botany - the emphasis of the book is on plant DNA. The photography is so bad that one can hardly recognise the subjects of the pictures; the drawings are scruffy and uninformative; and two plates are duplicated whilst others are misplaced.
There are some prestigious contributors, but not one of them appears to have received training in classical botanical science. It shows. Authors include forensic scientists, geneticists/DNA specialists, geologists, chemists/biochemists, a zoologist, a photographer, a sociologist, a microbiologist and a plant physiologist. One author trained in life sciences, and the Editor graduated in plant biology. But nowhere is there evidence of a deep understanding of plant taxonomy, anatomy, and ecology - all aspects of botanical science which are of critical importance to what one might think of as forensic botany.
Apart from pages 51-54, where there is some useful practical information, the reader would do well to skip the first six chapters. Instead, to get good botanical information, go to a botany book (preferably an old syllabus 'A' level one) and learn basics from the experts.
Most trained forensic scientists (and probably the average viewer of the CSI television programme) know that identification of wood, plant fibres, seeds, roots, and other anatomical structures have been, and still are, valuable in providing trace evidence. It is taken for granted that toxicologists would know about plant toxins, while the relevance of pollen grains and spores has been brought into the consciousness of many police officers and forensic scientists in recent years. With such an exciting title, I expected Forensic Botany to tell us something new about the many possible applications of botany to forensic science in a comprehensive and coherent way. I was, on the whole, very disappointed.
The meaningful start to the volume is a paper by C. Ladd and the world-renowned Henry C. Lee (p. 97). In fact, Professor Lee contributed to four of the 12 papers. This first contribution was a general account of forensic procedures while recognising that botanical evidence might be important. It gives general advice for the collection of many classes of evidence at the crime scene. I may have the wrong impression, but the authors appear to be recommending that investigators should carry out the sampling. I hope they meant 'forensic' investigators rather than scenes of crime officers. Two case histories were outlined, one dealing with cut marks on wood, and the other involving leaf identification.
The next paper by G. Shutler (p. 117) simply outlined the developments of forensic DNA analysis, and the only botanical reference was one brief paragraph on plant DNA. One wonders why this contribution was included in a book on forensic botany. However, Lee, Hsu, Miller Coyle and Lee (p. 137) certainly gave some interesting information on the DNA analysis of plant material in gut contents. But the contribution that interested me most was by R.A. Bever (p. 151). The author outlined some research carried out on the DNA of plant particulates collected from exhibits; he described how plant species were identified by the DNA profiles of the tiny fragments, and from particles within plant dust. I can see that this approach might be very helpful indeed to forensic investigation, especially when combined with other botanical techniques.
There were four papers on the DNA of Cannabis (marijuana). It would have been so much better to combine these contributions in some way. However, Adrian Linacre demonstrated that we now have the technique accepted in the British courts; this is of great interest and importance. The paper by Palmbach and Shutler (p. 197) dealt with the legal considerations for acceptance of new forensic methods in court - mostly the acceptance of nonhuman DNA (animals as well as plants). I am not sure of its relevance to the current British legal scene, but it must certainly be an important consideration. Other papers outlined case histories where plant material of one sort or another contributed to the evidence -wood, diatoms, and pollen. One in particular (p. 253), outlined DNA typing technologies for plants. The author gave a great deal of information about mosses; what a shame that his picture of 'mosses' appeared to be of lichens or, possibly, thalloid liverworts.
Naturally, the contribution by L.A. Milne, V.M. Bryant, and D.C. Mildenhall, 'Forensic Palynology' (p. 217), was the one which first caught my attention. There is a lot of valuable information in this paper, nice pictures, and some interesting case histories. But there is also a great deal of material that does not rest easily in this kind of publication. In my opinion, it should not be the vehicle for very basic palynological information (this can be found in much greater detail elsewhere) but should concentrate on the forensic aspects of the discipline. The authors do deal with sampling at crime scenes and handling of material, but what they have written suggests that they do not have extensive experience of actual crime scene evaluation in a wide variety of complex situations. I would also take issue with some of their advice on sampling, and hope that British investigators would seek advice from their own specialist in every case. It is virtually impossible to generalise on required palynological protocols in criminal investigation. Every crime scene is different and requires imaginative and varied actions; it is also difficult to extrapolate from the American/Antipodean experience to the European situation. A disappointing feature is that the authors ignored the large contribution that palynology (and forensic botany generally) has made to many different kinds of criminal case in Britain over the last ten years or so. The cooperation and enthusiasm of British police forces has meant that, unlike anywhere else in the world, it is becoming a part of recognised protocol in crime scene management here.
As I said at the beginning, this book does not live up to its title. It fails to present the principles of the subject comprehensively or coherently. It starts with some very poor botanical information and then gives a series of uncoordinated papers, mostly dealing with plant DNA. There is some very good material embedded within the chapters, but there is a lot of repetition. As a practicing forensic botanist, ecologist, and palynologist myself, I am obviously viewing this volume with highly critical eyes; perhaps I am being too hard on it. One thing it might achieve is that it will emphasise the potential of botany to forensic science generally.
