The mystery of the Soma plant reaches beyond questions of Vedic exegesis. The collection of hymns known as the RigVeda is a seminal document in Eurasian man's early history, and, as the Vedist Louis Renou wrote, the whole of the RigVeda with its problems is present in nucein the themes that Soma presents to us. If the Vedists make no effort to identify the plant, others must undertake the task. As is common knowledge, over the past two decades notable achievements have been made by the Swiss team of Conrad Eugster and Peter G. Waser in the analysis of Amanita muscaria and the study of the properties of its constituents. Apart from many other matters, Mr. Wasson presents what seems to be telling evidence, especially to scientists, that the Brahmans of Vedic times were privy to the secret of those properties, unique so far as we now know in the plant world. He takes advantage of this paper to reformulate succinctly, in the light of all the discussion provoked by his book, the case for his identification of Soma and carries the argument into new ground. The Soma question does not interest chemists and pharmacologists alone. It impinges on botany and especially on that field of botany which concerns itself with the psychotropic plants. It bears on anthropology and archaeology, on religion and the early cultural history of Eurasia.