lis THE PLANT WOKLB 



BOOK REVIEWS. 



Memoir of the New York State Museum, No, 4, Vol. 3, November, 1900. 

 Report of the State Botanist on Edible Fungi of New York, 1895- 

 1899. By Charles H. Peck, M. A., State Botanist. Albany. Uni- 

 versity of the State of New York. 



Under this title Professor Peck has brought together descriptions 

 and figures of the 47 edible species of mushrooms known to occur in 

 New York State. Dascriptions and illustrations of 53 of them apj>eared 

 in Keports 49, 51 and 52; the balance (14) represents the number of 

 edible species added during 1899. Aside from these, one unwholesome 

 species, Clitocyhe illadens, is figured. It is stated by the author in the 

 introduction, that " in consequence of recent discoveries of variations in 

 a few of the edible species described and illustrated in the three reports 

 mentioned, and of the great demand for these reports, it has seemed 

 desirable to revise the illustrations and descriptions where needful, and 

 to incorj)orate the whole in the present memoir with that part of the 

 state botanists report for 1899 relating to edible fungi. Accordingly 

 an attempt has been made to arrange both descriptions and illustrations 

 as far as possible in harmony with their natural and generic relations 

 to each other." The present work will undoubtedly prove a valuable 

 one, as presenting a convenient synopsis of the edible species of the 

 State, and, of course, of much of the adjoining terntory. It is, how- 

 ever, a source of regret that in view of recent advances in illustrative 

 photography, the revised descriptions should not have been accompa- 

 nied by more recognizable figures to replace the colored illustrations 

 adopted. Several recent works of popular botany might have served 

 as excellent models in this connection. — W. R. M. 



Flowers and Ferns in their Haunts. By Mabel Osgood "Wright. New 

 York. The MacmiUan Co., 1901. pp. i-xix; 1-358. Price $2.50. 



We have had, in recent years, many more or less popular works on 

 botany, but among them all not one that possesses the delicacy and 

 charm of treatment of this, Mrs. Wright's latest work. It is not a book 

 to which one may turn for cut-and-dried descrii:)tious of our more con- 

 spicuovs flowers and ferns, for the author well saj's: " The wild flower 

 and fern is only to be truly known where it creeps, clings, or sways un- 



