The publication of a text book on the oil palm is certain to be timely in view of the increasingly widespread interest in commercial plantings, particularly in South America and the Far East. Director of the West African Institute for Oil Palm Research (now called the Nigerian Institute for Oil Palm Research) until 1963, following service in the Agricultural Department of Malaya, Mr. Hartley is an acknowledged authority on the oil palm and has only recently visited Malaysia and tropical South and Central America in an advisory capacity in connection with the development of the industry of these areas. The author is thus well qualified to produce a major work reviewing this increasingly important crop.
This latest volume to be added to the publisher's Tropical Agriculture Series, as would be expected, deals in most of its 14 chapters with the botanical and agricultural aspects of the West African oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.), but it commences with a chapter devoted to the history of the oil palm industry. The tree was apparently first described from Africa by 15th century explorers, and the establishment of the first large plantations (in Sumatra) took place in 1911. This chapter is also concerned with the utilization of the products and aspects of world trade.
The chapter on the botany of the palm goes into the classification, morphology and growth of the African oil palm in some detail, and includes a useful illustrated description of various types and forms of the fruit. A short account of another species of oil palm which is native to Central and South America (Corozo oleifera (HBK) Bailey) is of some interest, not only in its own right in the existing present economy of these areas, but also in its possible value for hybridization with the African species.