^6 Book Notice. [ ''^June^^' 



BOOK NOTICE. 



The Smuts of Australia : their Structure, Life History, Treat- 

 ment, and Classification. By D. McAlpine, Government 

 Vegetable Pathologist, Department of Agriculture, Victoria. 

 1910. 285 pp., with 57 plates, including 312 illustrations. 

 4s. Melbourne : J. Kemp, Government Printer. 

 Students of economic botany all over the world will owe a debt 

 of gratitude to Mr. McAlpine for his new work, " The Smuts of 

 Australia." His previous volume on the " Rusts " has received 

 high praise in all quarters, and we have no doubt but that the 

 present work will receive a similar reception. As pointed out in 

 the preface, " careful cultivation, suitable rotation, and judicious 

 manuring " can be carried out, and so cause an increase in the 

 yield of cereal crops, but were the crops protected from the 

 ravages of preventable diseases the increase would be much 

 greater. The number of fungi classed as smuts is not large, but 

 as they principally attack our tereal and fodder crops the 

 result to the community may be very serious, hence the value 

 of Mr. McAlpine's observations. He has divided his work 

 into sections. The first is devoted to the general characters 

 of smuts ; the second to the life histories of the cereal smuts, 

 fully illustrated by natural size drawings, and the approved 

 treatment. The smuts attacking grasses and fodder plants 

 are then dealt with in the same way, and the results of field ex- 

 periments carried out last year are given at length. The fifth and 

 concluding section contains the classification and descriptions of 

 the sixty-eight species recorded for Australia. This portion of 

 the work shows an immense amount of research, and will save 

 the student much valuable time when working at the group, for 

 the author has dealt with each species so minutely as to re- 

 ferences, synonyms, descriptions, mode of occurrence, Szc, as to 

 leave little for future investigators to do, while nearly every 

 species has its plate, including several figures ot the spores, &c. 

 The majority of the illustrations are from photographs by Mr. G. 

 H. Robinson, the author's former assistant, and have been well 

 reproduced in black and white at the Government Printing Ofiice. 

 An explanation of terms, list of literature, host index, fungus 

 index, and general index complete the work, which, like its 

 predecessor, will doubtless become a text-book in Agricultural 

 Colleges in various parts of the world. 



University Extension Lectures. — Prof E. W. Skeats, D.Sc, 

 will commence a course of lectures, entitled " Some Problems in 

 Physical Geology," at the Geology School, University, on 

 Tuesday evening, 14th June, at 8 p.m. Eighteen lectures will 

 be delivered. Tickets admitting to the course are obtainable at 

 one guinea each. Further particulars may be obtained from the 

 hon. sec, Mr. R. W. Armitage, Continuation School, Melbourne. 



