BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE. 
Dei Funghi sospetti e velenosi del Territorio Sienese. Per Francesco 
Vatenti-Serini, M.D. Pubblicato sotto gli auspici e per cura della 
Reale Accademia di Medicina di Torino. Torino, 1868. [On the 
Suspected and Poisonous Fungi of the Territory of Siena. By Dr. 
F. Vareyti-Sermi. Oblong folio. With 56 coloured plates. | 
THis very important contribution to cryptogamic botany is from one 
who has devoted many years of study to the discrimination of the 
different species of Fungi, chiefly with a view to determine which 
are those safe for the use of man as food. Dr. Valenti-Serini is 
the author of many works upon mycology, one of which is a general 
‘Flora Micologica” of the Sienese territory, in two large folio volumes. 
Upper Italy is a country in which these plants are abundant and 
extensively eaten, and where accidents from the employment of 
poisonous ones by mistake are not unfrequent. Hence the interest 
attached to the selection of those that are safely edible. In a former 
work the author embraced the whole of the fungi, edible and poi- 
sonous, and reproduced them in relief, in terra cotta, coloured after 
nature. This work also was a mycology applied to hygiene and toxi- 
cology, and was prepared primarily to teach his countrymen which 
species and varieties are to be selected, and which to be rejected. 
After the manuscript of the present volume, accompanied by the 
drawings (now very carefully reproduced in fifty-six coloured litho- 
graphs), had been presented to the Academy of Medicine of Turin, 
an elaborate report upon it was laid before the Academy by Professor 
Antonio Garbiglietti, which pointed out the great value of Dr. Va- 
lenti-Serini’s manuscript, and recommended its publication ; besides 
which, terra-cotta facsimiles of these dangerous fungi, and the draw- 
ings also, have been placed in a cabinet in the museum of the Aca- 
demy, in order that they may be consulted and studied by those who 
resort to this museum. 
We will give the title of Dr. Garbiglietti’s report below, by which 
it will be seen that he enhanced his services to botanical science by 
accompanying it with an extended Catalogue of the Fungi of the 
neighbourhood of Turin and the whole of Upper Italy*. This 
catalogue embraces 500 species, and, besides other matters, gives the 
places of their growth and their qualities. It is a valuable work, 
and well deserved to be published by the Academy in a separate 
form +. 
* Intorno all’ opera manoscritta del Dr. F. Valenti-Serini, sopra i 
Funghi sospetti e velenosi del Terr. Sienese, Relazione del Socio Dott. 
Collegiato Cay. Antonio Garbiglietti. Coll’ aggiunta di un Catalogo 
compilato per cura dello stesso Relatore. Torino, 1864. 
+ Catalogo delle principali Specie di Funghi crescenti nei contorni di 
Torino ed in altre Provincie degli antichi Stati Sardi di Terra ferma, dis- 
poste secondo il Sistema Micologico di Fries, compilato per cura del 
Dott. Coll. Cav. Antonio Garbiglietti, M.D. Torino, 1867. 
