256 Transactions British Mycological Society. 
As regards the measurements and shapes of cystidia it is very 
doubtful whether they ought to have been included at all. 
Their part in the life-history of a fungus is unknown, and it 
seems unwise and unnecessary to allow them to enter into the 
determination of species of Basidiomycetes, which, if they are 
true species at all, have a sufficient number of obvious features 
to separate them from one another. To study such organs is 
interesting and scientific, but to give them a place in the de- 
scription of a species is quite a different thing. 
What some will miss in these descriptions are even the briefest 
notes regarding the localities of the rarer species, and any hints 
of a popular kind as to points that might help to separate one 
fungus from another. No one could have supplied these better 
than Mr Rea, but probably he was influenced by consideration 
of space. 
One great merit of the volume is the inclusion, up-to-date, of 
all species recently introduced into our British fungus-flora. 
These can now be recognised at once when they are met with, 
and the trouble of tracing them through the pages of scattered 
publications is avoided. 
A tendency has been observed, especially in later years, to 
multiply species unnecessarily by laying undue stress on com- 
paratively trivial points of difference. Neither Fries nor 
Berkeley nor Quélet was guilty of this error nor is Mr Rea 
much to blame, but many will desire that he had not had so 
much consideration towards these species but rather dealt with 
them with a master hand, so striking at the root of an evil 
which has been flourishing too long. Examples will occur to 
any experienced mycologist. We shall soon be overweighted by 
‘““species’’ which are not independent species, but mere varieties 
of others, and which add confusion to the difficulties of identifi- 
cation which are already so formidable. 
A word may be added as to the title of the book. No doubt 
Mr Rea felt himself bound to follow the rules laid down by 
Saccardo and approved by the British Mycological Society at 
their Meeting at Whitby in 1904 but, pace Saccardo, the word 
BASIDIOMYCETAE is an impossible word, neither Greek, Latin 
nor English; it should have been BAsIDIOMYCETES. Saccardo 
was no doubt a good mycologist, but he was a bad grammarian. 
There will of course be differences of opinion as to different 
features in a voluminous work of this kind, but all mycologists 
will agree in recognising its great merit, and in giving it a hearty 
welcome. It is indispensable to every student of the larger 
fungi. The better it is known the more it will be appreciated. 
It is an honour to the British Mycological Society that it has 
appeared under its auspices. W. B. ALLEN 
