ORANGES: All About Them

Such limp filler material as ""orange games and crafts"" (""at Halloween an orange makes a fine miniature jack o'lantern"") and uninspired recipes for ""orange egg nog"" and fruit salads (""Arrange orange segments like sunbeams on a large lettuce leaf and add a mound of cottage cheese. . ."") are not what we would have expected from the Silversteins. And though there are some more substantial chapters on propagation by budding, citrus hybrids, flavonoid research and even the mythological golden apples of the Hesperides, it's surprising that authors with an interest in medical subjects would skim over the vitamin C controversy (noting only that high doses ""have been found effective"" in preventing colds) and that they don't question the cosmetic use of ethylene oxide and red dye. The bibliography reminds us that New Yorker writer John McPhee did a readable adult book on oranges nine years back. . . .