208 



BOOKS AND CURRENT LITERATURE 



bacteria, lichens, slime molds, mites, eel worms and certain animals. 

 In general, a brief descriptive characterization is made of each disease. 

 This is followed by the most salient features of the causal organism and 

 is concluded with brief suggestions for control. 



Approximately two-thirds of the book is devoted to the fungi which 

 produce diseases. The order of arrangement of these diseases is based 

 on the systematic position of the causal organism. This arrangement, 

 as is well known, has been followed by practically all of the authors of 

 text-books of plant diseases. The writer is well aware, too, that in 

 many colleges and universities, the presentation of the sul^ject matter 

 of plant pathology to students, centers around the causal organism 

 rather than the resultant disease. In defense of this arrangement, 

 attention is directed to the usefulness of an imaginary text book on 

 "Diseases of Domestic and Feral Animals," constructed with the same 

 ground plan. 



While the proper arrangement of subject matter is largely a matter 

 of personal opinion, it is regretted that the author has not seen fit 

 to revise and bring up to date the body of the text, properly incor- 

 porate the supplement in the body of the text, remove a considerable 

 number of inaccuracies and include the methods of control which have 

 been devised and demonstrated during the past decade. This would 

 have added very materially to the usefulness of the book both to the 

 one who is interested in the fungi that cause plant diseases and the one 

 who wishes to know of the plant diseases that are caused by fungi. 



While no attempt will be made to list inaccuracies, several diseases 

 have been noted which are described under the caption ascigerous 

 stage and again under the conidial stage of the causal fungus. There 

 is nothing to indicate a genetic connection between these stages, and 

 the symptoms and control measures given differ. Certain organisms, 

 too, are listed with one ascigerous state in one portion of the text and 

 another on a succeeding page. Care should have eliminated these 

 errors. 



Consideration is given to an unusually large number of fungi, many 

 of which are of importance to the mycologist only and are not produc- 

 tive of disease to economic plants. Rare diseases too are not infre- 

 quently given a considerable amount of space, whereas common, 

 destructive maladies are confined to a single paragraph. 



The book will serve a distinctly limited usefulness to the student of 

 plant diseases in the United States since it covers so inadequately the 

 American literature on plant pathology and since many important 

 diseases find no mention in the book. — Frederick A. Wolf. 



