The Scottish Naturalist. 127 



system of nomenclature founded by Linne, by a trinomial one, 

 and to give the student additional — and to many persons un- 

 intelligible — words to remember. For instance, why should we 

 have the trouble — not to mention the loss of time — of saying 

 " Agaricus (Psathyra) spadiceo-griseus" instead of u Agaricus spa- 

 diceo-griseus" or u Psathyra spadiceo-griseus"} Another pet aver- 

 sion of ours is the manufacture of " English names " for species 

 which have not common names of their own, and in this respect 

 Mr. Cooke sins very deeply. Psallioia campestris — we beg 

 pardon, Agaricus ( Psalliota) campestris — is known throughout 

 Britain as the "Mushroom" ; but who calls the above-mentioned 

 Agaricus (Psathyra) spadiceo-griseus the " Bay-grey Psathyra." 



We shall, however, be much surprised if the study of Fungi 

 in Britain does not receive a great impulse from the publication 

 of Mr. Cooke's two well-got-up volumes, and the best thanks 

 of the botanical world are due to him for his enterprise in 

 undertaking and publishing such a work 



The other work whose title appears at the head of this article 

 is one of the meritorious publications of the Aberdeen Natural 

 History Society — an association which generally and sensibly 

 confines its publications to works bearing on the Fauna and 

 Flora of the north-east of Scotland, and is thereby doing good 

 service to science at large. 



The author, who, we believe, has not been studying Fimgi 

 for any great length of time, but who has been successful in 

 adding several striking species to the British list, enumerates in 

 this pamphlet all the Fungi found by him near Forres, up to 

 the end of 1870. No less than 129 species of Agaricus are 

 included, and other genera of the larger species are well re- 

 presented, but comparatively few of the smaller genera and 

 species are mentioned in the list. We hope that Mr. Keith in- 

 tends publishing a list of the many species he is sure to find when 

 he turns his attention more closely to the Micro-fungi. Among 

 the many interesting species mentioned, we notice Fisiuli?ia 

 hepatica, which we do not remember seeing recorded before as 

 a Scottish species. Mr. Keith marks it as very rare, which 

 as it is a species of high character as an esculent, we hope our 

 fungivorous friends in Forres will bear in mind. 



