Background
Heiser, Charles Bixler was born on October 5, 1920 in Cynthiana, Indiana, United States. Son of Charles Bixler and Inez (Metcalf) Heiser.
( Humankind has had a long and intimate association with ...)
Humankind has had a long and intimate association with gourds, and one of them, the bottle gourd, or calabash, may have been man's first cultivated plant. Although grown in the United States today primarily as ornamentals, in other parts of the world gourds have many other important uses. With charming text and stunning black-and-white photographs, The Gourd Book provides fascinating scientific information and folklore about these remarkable plants and keys for identifying species. The first part of the book deals with tree gourds, widely used as containers and for decoration; the Cucurbita gourds, including the buffalo gourd, the Turk's turban, the silver-seed gourd, and the Malabar gourd, all utilized as food, and the beautiful ornamental gourds; the loofah gourds, popular as cosmetic sponges; minor gourds, such as the snake, wax, bitter, teasel, and hedgehog, sometimes used as food or medicine; and gourds mentioned in the Bible. The second part takes up the bottle gourd, which has been used for thousands of years. Even today this gourd is almost indispensable in many parts of the tropics, where species are used to make containers, musical instruments, and clothing, as food and medicine, and in art. The book concludes with a discussion of the gourd in folklore and myth and an appendix on growing, hybridizing, and preserving gourds for decoration. Delightfully written for general readers, this book will also appeal to botanists, anthropologists, horticulturists, and everyone interested in plants or gardening.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0806115246/?tag=2022091-20
Heiser, Charles Bixler was born on October 5, 1920 in Cynthiana, Indiana, United States. Son of Charles Bixler and Inez (Metcalf) Heiser.
Bachelor of Arts, Washington University, St. Louis, 1943; Master of Arts, Washington University, St. Louis, 1944; Doctor of Philosophy, University of California at Berkeley, 1947.
Instructor Washington University, St. Louis, 1944-1945; associate botany, University of California at Davis, 1946-1947; member of faculty, Indiana U., Bloomington, since 1947; professor botany, Indiana U., since 1957; Distinguished professor, Indiana U., 1979-1986; distinguished professor emeritus, Indiana U., since 1986.
( What are the origins of agriculture? How did people lea...)
( Humankind has had a long and intimate association with ...)
(factual and anecdotal information on nightshades, bw illu...)
Member American Society Plant Taxonomists (president 1967, Asa Gray award 1988), Botanical Society American (Merit award 1972, president 1980), Society Study Evolution (president 1974), International Association Plant Taxonomy, Society Economics Botany (president 1978, Distinguished Economics Botanist 1984), National Academy Sciences, Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Xi.
Married Dorothy Gaebler, August 19,1944. Children— Lynn Marie, Cynthia Ann, Charles Bixler III.