.3,,. SOME NEW BOOKS. 71 



and no reference is made to them in the text. The figures on each 

 plate are only indicated by numbers, and we must refer to the list at 

 the beginning of the book to find whether a species is figured at all, 

 and then search through the book for the particular plate. No 

 description of the figures is given, and it is not even stated whether 

 they are natural size drawings. In some cases, sections, or parts of 

 sections, through the cap are included without any explanation, and 

 these are not in every case all that might be desired, as, for instance, 

 that of the Common Mushroom on Plate 6, Fig. 19. The work is 

 evidently meant to be a popular handbook, and as plates appeal most 

 to the popular mind as a means of identification, we cannot but regret 

 these defects in their arrangement and execution. 



At the end of the book there is a list of nearly two hundred edible 

 fungi. About seventy are marked with an asterisk, indicating that 

 Dr. Cooke has himself eaten them. One cannot help thinking that 

 the list is too long, for there must surely be a wide difTerence between 

 edible fungi which may be eaten "without inconvenience," and those 

 which would form a welcome addition to a meal. Thus, Lentinus 

 tigrinns and two species of Panus are characterised as "tough when 

 old, and never very delicate or digestible," and we might cite similar 

 or even more doubtful cases. Dr. Cooke's object is evidently to make 

 converts, and we venture to think he would do this more effectually 

 by merely indicating those species which may not onl}' be eaten 

 " without inconvenience," but also whet the appetite, and induce 

 those partaking to go further and try others. 



The Tenth Annual Report of the United States Geological Survey for 

 1888-9, i^ two parts, dated 1890, has just been received in England. 

 It contains the Report of the Director, Major J. W. Powell, with 

 plates illustrating Standards of Colours for Geological Cartography. 

 The accompanying papers include: — (i) A General Account of the 

 Freshwater Morasses of the United States, with a Description of 

 the Dismal Swamp District of Virginia and North Carolina, by N. S. 

 Shaler ; (2) The Penokee Iron-bearing Series of Michigan and Wis- 

 consin, by R. D. Irving and C. R. Van Hise ; (3) The Fauna of the 

 Lower Cambrian or Olenellus Zone, by C. D. Walcott ; and (4) The 

 First Annual Report of the Irrigation Survey, by the Director. The 

 Bulletins of the same Survey issued during 1891 comprise: — (i) The 

 Texan Permian and its Mesozoic Types of Fossils, by C. A. White ; 

 (2) Correlation Papers — Devonian and Carboniferous, by H. S. 

 Williams ; (3) Correlation Papers — Cambrian, by C. D. Walcott ; 

 (4) A late Volcanic Eruption in Northern California and its peculiar 

 Lava, by J. S. Diller ; (5) The Minerals of North Carolina, by F. A. 

 Genth ; and some good Bibliographies. 



