52 THE JOURNAL OP BOTANY 



laginecs, reviewed in this Journal for 1889. Since that time no 

 Enghsh book deahng with the rusts has appeared, and, considering 

 the vast amount of research which has been done on the Continent 

 during the past few years — much of which seems quite unknown 

 to British mycologists — the present book, gathering up this work 

 as it does, should prove a welcome addition to our mycological 

 literature. 



The first thing to strike one on perusing it is the very small 

 amount of original work from the biological side : an occasional 

 observation such as everyone must make is all that is recorded. 



The book is divided into two parts : general and systematic. 

 In the former the life-histories of typical Uredinales are described, 

 giving an indication of the variation met with. Other matters 

 considered are sexuality, the nature of the so-called spermatia, 

 the nuclear life-history, alternation of generations, the spore 

 forms and their groupings, specialisation, and immunity. A 

 further chapter deals with classification and phylogeny. As 

 this portion of the book consists of only eighty-four pages, the 

 various accounts are necessarily much condensed. Boom for a 

 little expansion could have been obtained by a slightly different 

 arrangement which would have saved a certain amount of repeti- 

 tion. Most of the recent work on the special points in this section 

 has been considered. It is here naturally that there are differences 

 of opinion. The evidence brought forward of fertilization by 

 " Christman's method " in Puccinia Caricis is quite inadequate. 

 The phylogenetic tree on p. 83, which places the Ascomycetes and 

 the Basidiomycetes on one line of development and the Uredinales 

 and Ustilaginales on another, will not be accepted by many 

 mycologists who understand the questions which arise. The 

 other points in these preliminary chapters call for no comment 

 here save that they seem to have been on the whole fairly 

 stated. 



The classification adopted differs slightly from that proposed 

 by Dietel in the Appendix to Engler & Prantl's Pflanzenfamilien, 

 followed with minor modifications by the majority of recent 

 authors, but Endophyllum is made the type of a family as 

 in Dietel's first system. The order is divided into the Impedi- 

 cellatee ; Melampsoracege, CronartiaceaB, Coleosporiaceee and En- 

 dophyllacese : and Pedicellatse ; Pucciniaceae. The Melampsoraceee 

 are subdivided into Melampsorese and Hyalopsoreae ; Coleosporiaceae 

 into Coleosporieae, Ochropsoreae, and Zaghouanieae, and Pucciniacese 

 into Puccinieas, Phragmidiese, and Gymnosporangieae, subfamilies 

 proposed at different times by various authors. A generic key is 

 given. In the body of the book the families are taken in the 

 reverse order from that in which they appear in the classification 

 and in the generic key, for which there seems no reason. The 

 author tells us in his preface that the specific descriptions are based 

 upon those of the Monographia Uredinearum of the brothers Sydow. 

 " Those of all the species of which British specimens could be 

 procured have been carefully revised, and there is hardly one of 

 them that has not been added to or amended. Fischer's Uredineen 



