TROPICAL FORESTS AND THEIR CROPS by Nigel...

TROPICAL FORESTS AND THEIR CROPS by Nigel Smith, T.J. Williams, L. Plunkett & Jennifer Talbot (Cornell Univeristy Press: $27.95; 568 pp., illustrated, paperback original). Much of the ongoing debate over the fate of the tropical rain forests has centered on the potential economic benefits that are being destroyed before they can even be calculated. This thorough study documents both the familiar products the forests have provided (rubber, vanilla, chocolate, coffee, cloves, allspice) and a variety of fruits and vegetables that have recently begun to penetrate Western markets (durian, rambutan, passion fruit). Many of the wild relatives of these plants contain such useful genetic properties as resistance to drought, disease and insects; others could become valuable crops--several species of cacao may offer more potent forms of chocolate. Yet they all may be extinct within a few decades.