Bibliographical Notice. 493 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE. 



Die Pilzthiere oder Schleimpilze. Von Dr. W. Zopf. Breslau : 

 E. Trewendt, 1885. 



It is now more than twenty years since the publication of De 

 Bary's 'Mycetozoen,' which first called general attention to the 

 remarkable life-history of these organisms. The first result of that 

 publication was to raise a storm of criticism, which, so far as it was 

 respectful and the outcome of reflection, was natural enough. The 

 occasion was one of a new and somewhat startling departure, and 

 it naturally surprised some more than others. The violence of the 

 criticism was in proportion to the unprcparedness of the critic, and 

 a considerable body of it produced in this country was characterized 

 by abject ignorance of the bearings of the investigation and conse- 

 quent misrepresentation of its results. First of all it was pretty 

 commonly thought that the whole thing was absurd, chiefly because 

 it was imperfectly understood. Next came a period of indifference 

 and relapse, to be followed by the energetic and well-directed work 

 of recent years. 



Rostafinski's beautiful monograph (1875) was the next great 

 contribution to our knowledge ; but from the fact that it is written 

 in Polish it is accessible only in a fragmentary way. Por example, 

 Dr. M. C. Cooke has extracted and translated the parts referring to 

 such species as have been recorded in Britain ; but this gives one 

 merely so much as to lead to a demand for more. To come to 

 more recent publications, De Bary's treatment of the group in the 

 ' Vergleichende Morphologie ' (noticed in Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 

 Nov. 1S84) has been followed by two valuable publications, viz. 

 that at the head of this notice and Schroter's treatise, just pub- 

 lished, which begins the third volume of the ' Kryptogam en-Flora 

 von Sehlesien.' The latter is merely a systematic arrangement, 

 differing, it is true, from Zopf's as to the disposition of a number of 

 genera, but not otherwise in any striking way. In all of these 

 publications, from Rostafinski's onwards, there is manifest the fruit 

 directly borne by the investigations recorded in the ' Mycetozoen,' 

 which were so long regarded by many with indifference. 



Dr. Zopf has succeeded in producing an extremely useful book ; 

 the matter is well arranged, the descriptions clear, and the illustra- 

 tions good and plentiful. After a short introduction the book is 

 divided into three parts, dealing with the morphology, physiology, 

 and systematic disposition respectively. The first and second sec- 

 tions are remarkably well done, and the amount of detail is just 

 what is desirable in such a handbook. In the systematic section 

 the student will be agreeably surprised to find not an outline merely, 

 but detailed descriptions of species, such as are certain to render 

 great service in their identification. The 174 pages of the book 

 are about as well filled with useful matter as could be desired. 



Ann.& Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 5. Vol. xv. 34 



