74 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



or twelve beds within five or six yards of each other, where the 

 birds had been, quite recently. Notwithstanding their number, 

 however, not a single specimen was seen. 



Bullocks are very largely utilized for timber haulage in this 

 particular part of the country, a team of which I photographed. 



I returned to Melbourne on Monday, 18th, after a most en- 

 joyable holiday, and as I understand the Club has selected South 

 Gippsland for the annual camp-out I trust this paper may help in 

 inducing many of our members to join in the excursion. 



REVIEW. * 

 Students of Australian Fungi have at length obtained their 

 Handbook, and are to be congratulated upon the useful and 

 handsome volume which Dr. Cooke has prepared for them. It 

 comprises over 400 pages of descriptions and 36 coloured plates. 

 About 2,000 species of fungi are described. This is nearly double 

 the number enumerated by Baron von Mueller in the "Fragmenta," 

 vol. xi. A few species are included, by inadvertence, from the 

 Falkland Islands. 



That colossal monograph, " The Sylloge Fungorum," published 

 in ten thick volumes by Professor Saccardo, of Padua, describes 

 30,000 known species of fungi, large and small. (A copy of this 

 work, to which Dr. Cooke constantly refers, has been purchased 

 by Baron von Mueller and presented to the Public Library, where 

 it can be consulted by fungologists.) It will thus be seen that 

 Australia possesses at least one-fifteenth of all the known forms 

 of fungi. 



The illustrations are exceedingly good, and the Agricultural 

 Departments of the various colonies, which contributed largely to 

 the cost of publication, will reap abundant reward in the exact 

 descriptions by a competent specialist of these plants, many of 

 which are injurious to crops and to forests, and even to animals. 

 It is to the credit of the Australian governments that such works 

 as the " Flora Australiensis " and the present handbook should 

 have been promoted at the public cost. 



This long list of species has only been obtained by the efforts 

 of many workers. Baron von Mueller was already collecting 

 fungi in Australia in 1847. Sir Joseph Hooker published an 

 account of the fungi in the second volume of the " Flora 

 Tasmaniensis." The descriptions were due to the Rev. M. J, 

 Berkeley, who also described species from Western Australia. In 

 the " Fragmenta," vol. xi., Baron von Mueller enumerates 1,069 

 species, all told. Since then the Baron, by his collectors, and 

 aided by other workers, has obtained many more forms. Mrs. 



* " Handbook of Australian Fungi," by M. C. Cooke. Williams and 

 Norgate, 1892. 





