1909] Another Mushroom Book. 123 
If the last suggestion is true, it is a pity that the author's desire — 
should not have found him better 
a worthy one, all will agree 
equipped, for we need a good book on mushrooms, such a book as no 
competent American authority has yet had confidence to prepare. 
The demand from the public is real, and growing stronger, and is no 
longer satisfied by a partial response to it such as we find in the Reports 
of the New York State Botanist, in Government Bulletins, or in Prof. 
Atkinson's deservedly popular book. While we wait for an American 
Fries or Gillet to do for the United States something better than they 
did for Sweden or for France, the opportunity for cheaply earned 
gratitude and a passing renown lies open to any one who has learned a 
few names, copied a few descriptions, assembled a few pictures, and 
found a publisher who sees that there is a market for such a compilation. 
It is hardly worth while to say much in detail of Mr. Hard's per- 
formance. He has undoubtedly done his best, with much labor, 
sarnestness, and enthusiasm. But it is not Mr. Hard's best that we 
want. His failure, for instance, to provide keys in the genera where 
species are numerous, and even to arrange those species he selects 
in the order of relationship, shows a fundamental lack of capacity 
for making a book of this kind. ‘Thirty-seven Boleti, for example, 
out of the hundred or more known in the United States, are thrown 
together hap-hazard. As a result, Boletus alveolatus, B. & C., and 
Boletus Frostii, Russell, thought by some to be identical, and, at any 
rate, indistinguishable by an amateur, are placed 14 pages apart. 
B. edulis, Bull, is separated from its variety, clavipes, Pk., by three 
unrelated species. 
His attempt to give an English name to every species, and to give 
the derivation of the Latin name leads to some infelicities, as ‘ће 
stemmed-massed Marasmius" (M. cohaerens, p. 40); “‘Androsaceus 
means an unidentified sea-plant or zoophyte" (p. 138); “Marasmius 
is a Greek participle" (p. 136); ‘“Galericulata, a small peaked сар” 
(р. 120); *' Ditopoda is from two Greek words, di-totos, living in two 
places (7), and pus or poda, foot” (p. 99). 
To return to the photographs, which the writer was inclined to 
accept with favor, it must be said that closer examination shows them 
in many cases to be below the standard. In saying this the reviewer 
feels bound to remark that his eyes were opened to the defects of the 
pictures by a friend who has been engaged for many years in pains- 
taking efforts to perfect the pictorial record of our fleshy fungy, and 
