The Imperial Bureau of Mycology. E. J. Butler. 169 
Botanic Gardens and it will work in close co-operation with the 
latter institution. 
The following is a brief sketch of the proposed activities of 
the Bureau, which have been worked out in consultation with 
mycologists both here and in the colonies. As its primary 
function is to be of use to economic mycologists in the overseas 
parts of the Empire, the views of the latter have naturally great 
weight, and it is already evident that a great deal of considera- 
tion is being given by the Colonial Departments of Agriculture 
to the best methods of making the Bureau of real use. After 
having had nearly twenty years practical experience in India of 
the directions in which help is needed it was not difficult for 
me to suggest what the broad lines of our work should be; other 
useful proposals have been sent in from abroad, and there is no 
doubt that still more will follow. 
There appear to be two main directions which must be 
followed if the Bureau is to justify its existence; and there are 
many subsidiary activities which will greatly add to its utility. 
The two main directions are of equal importance. They are 
the accumulation and distribution of information on all matters 
connected with the diseases of plants, and the identification of 
specimens of injurious fungi. 
For the former the Bureau must endeavour to keep in touch 
with mycological and pathological work going on in all parts of 
the world, and must index all the useful literature so that past 
and current work on any particular subject can be readily 
traced. The oversea worker is often in too isolated a position to 
be able to do this for himself: his first need is to know what 
has been done elsewhere on the problems with which he is faced 
and whether there is any recent or current work on them; and 
for this we hope to provide the necessary organization at the 
Bureau. The number of journals, periodical reports and the like 
that will have to be examined is very large, probably ap- 
proaching four figures, but many of these have only an occasional 
reference of value. As soon as the necessary additional funds 
are provided (the original proposals in 1918 were calculated on 
a war basis) it is proposed to start a periodical abstracting 
journal on the lines of The Review of Applied Entomology, 
published by the Imperial Bureau of Entomology. But it is 
clear that this in itself will not be enough. We must be able to 
issue, on demand, the complete references to past work on the 
problems on which individual workers overseas are engaged. It 
will naturally take time before we can build up complete subject 
catalogues to enable this to be done readily. Besides the general 
subject catalogue we will require to compile, as soon as possible, 
a host-plant index, giving the fungi recorded on economically 
