232 ■ Rhodora :■ [December 



which is often in a pupil a welcome sign of intelligence. In his views 

 on evolution and classification, Dr. Davis cannot be accused of being 

 behind the times. In fact, in his advocacy of the hypothesis — 

 advanced only six months ago -by one of his pupils^ — of the sporo- 

 phytic nature of the tetrasporic plants in the Red Algae, he is suggest- 

 ing (p. 219 -p. 220) and even asserting (p. 222) a theory not yet 

 generally accepted or even generally known. This course seems at 

 least unwise in an elementary text-book. 



On one topic, of some practical importance, Dr. Davis seems to be 

 satisfied with a treatment that is at once popular and superficial. 

 He does not do justice to the fleshy fungi, or even show great knowl- 

 edge of them. We should rather expect to be told, for instance, 

 (p. 253) that truffles are subterranean. We have a right to demand 

 that the definition of so important a structure as the volva (p. 2G6) 

 should be ex})licit and correct. Dr. Davis is following a popular 

 misconception in making this term equivalent to the popular term. 

 cup, applied to the sheath or bag that encloses the base of the sti|)e in 

 Amanita. The volva is much more than this. His error becomes 

 serious, even dangerous, when he teaches that poisonous Amanitas 

 all have large volvas (i. e. cups according to the text). As is well 

 known, Amanita miiscaria a deadly species common everywhere has 

 a volva which is broken into scales on stipe and pileus, and has no cup 

 at all. 



The book has abundant and clear illustrations throughout — many 

 of them original, especially those of Dr. Davis. 



Two Editions of Torrey & Gray's Flora of North America. 

 — Some time ago my attention was called to variations in copies of 

 Torrey & Gray's Flora of North America, volume 1, which seem to 

 indicate that some portions have been reprinted. An examination of 

 the type shows that pages 321 to 360 (signatures 41 to 45) inclusive 

 were reset in a slightly different font, so that, while the amount of 

 matter is the same on each page, that of the lines often varies. The 

 Greek letters and figures show" clearly the change of type: for instance, 

 the base line of the 2 and the top line of the 7 are curved in the orig- 

 inal but straight in the reprint. On page 324 and 325 of the original 



■ . I Yumanouchi: Bot. Gaz. xli. 426-433. June, 1906. 



