PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 349 



really study Fungi in this country is very small, there are probably a 

 good many who are glad to know the names of some of the most 

 familiar and striking species, and to learn something of their pro- 

 perties. To such, and to a limited extent, the present little book 

 may prove useful. The author is here on his own special ground, and 

 has had, besides, considerable experience in the compilation of " popu- 

 lar science " writings. Yet it would not be possible to contend that 

 he has done his best in the present case ; indeed, instead of an " Ac- 

 count of British Fungi," the main title of the book might be more 

 accurately worded, " J>Jotes on some of the larger British Hyraenomy- 

 cetes, with a selection of approved receipts forcooking the edible species." 

 The time has scarcely yet arrived, if it ever can, for a " plain and easy " 

 account of the structure, development, changes, and genetic relation- 

 ships of the lower Fungi, but surely somewhat more than twenty-five 

 small pages in large type might have been allotted to the whole of the 

 remaining Families ; and Mr. Cooke could readily have afforded his 

 readers more complete information on some of the most interesting and 

 important forms. The text is illustrated by twenty coloured plates, 

 mostly redrawn for this edition and decidedly better than those of the 

 previous ones. H. T. 



^roccctiing^ of d§>ocictic^. 



British Association. — Meeting at Glasgow, 1876. — There was very 

 little of botanical interest at the meetings of the various sections. The 

 principal papers read were the following : — " On the most recent 

 researches into the structure and affinities of the plants of the coal- 

 measures," by Prof. W. C. Williamson. With regard to Calamites, 

 what had formerly been regarded as the stem had turned out to be 

 only casts in sand or mud of the pith of the plant. The author had 

 recently obtained a specimen with the bark on exhibiting the follow- 

 ing structure : a cellular pith surrounded by canals running length- 

 wise down the stem ; outside of these canals, wedges of true vascular 

 structure ; and, lastly, a cellular bark. Brongniart had placed Lepi- 

 dodendron in a separate group from SigiUaria, being under the im- 

 pression that a layer of exogenous growth characterises Sigillaina and 

 is absent in Lepidodendron ; the author had examined a series of 

 young and old specimens which showed that the differences were not 

 of such importance, but merely specific, or perhaps resulting from the 

 age of the individual plants. — " Notes on Mascarene species of 

 Pandanus,'" by I. B. Balfour. No part of the flora of the Mascarene 

 Islands is more peculiar than the Screw-pines. No less than twenty- 

 two species occur there, of which twenty are endemic ; nine at least 

 are endemic to Mauritius, and of the four recorded for Bourbon three 

 are endemic. The definition of the species is very difficult, and a 

 scientific revision of the genus much wanted, the whole being in con- 

 fusion ; the examination of the Mascarene species will greatly contri- 

 bute towards enabling this to be effected. — *' On the circinate verna- 

 tion of Sphenopteris affinis, and the discovery of Staphylopteris in 

 British Bocks," by C. W. Peach. The author has examined S. 

 affinis in the black shale at West Calder near Edinburgh, in a large 



