

SPECIMENS IN OUR COLLECTION. 

 Mexico, T. S. Brandegee. 



HOLOCOTYIvON TEXENSE (Plate 73). Peridium globose, 

 very thin and fragile, white, breaking irregularly. Gleba mass dark 

 "brown. Spores globose, smooth, 4-5 mic. (mostly) with permanent, very 

 thin pedicels. This plant has reached us (two collections) from J. W. 



Stiles, Huntsville, Texas. 

 In peridium characters, size 

 and general appearance the 

 plant is exactly the same as 

 Arachnion album, but dif- 

 fers in color and structure 

 F '9 96. of the gleba. Fig. 96 rep- 



resents the plant, natural size, drawn by Prof Patouillard. 



SPECIMENS IN OUR COLLECTION. 

 Texas, J. W. Stiles. 



PROFESSOR FARLOW'S WORK. 



Undoubtedly the most important and useful work that has ever 

 been issued on American fungi is the "Bibliographical Index of North 

 American Fungi," by William G. Farlow, the first part ot which has 

 just been published by The Carnegie Institution of Washington. The 

 references to American fungi are so scattered and fugitive that the 

 bringing together in a systematic form will be a great help and conven- 

 ience, and no man in America is as competent or as well equipped for a 

 critical editorship of this work as Prof. Farlow. No other man in Amer- 

 ica has as large a collection as he, and probably no other man in Amer- 

 ica has devoted more study to the subject. His critical notes will 

 be of inestimable value to American mycologists. The principles of 

 nomenclature, as stated in his preface, have the right ring to them, 

 and we hope they will be strictly carried out without fear or favor. 

 We reproduce a lew extracts from the preface that impress us as be- 

 ing particularly sound : 



"There are two categories of botanists; those who believe that 

 nomenclature is an end rather than a means, to whom the changing 

 of names to adapt them to a uniform, automatic system seems to be the 

 important aim in science; and those who regard nomenclature as a 

 necessary evil which can be mitigated by making as few changes as 

 possible. Of these two categories, it is hardly necessary to say that 

 we should prefer to be classed with the latter." 



" It is best not to make too violent attempts to interpret the older 

 mycologists, but to be content with letting the dead bury their dead. 

 The business of reviving corpses has been carried altogether too far 

 in mycology. An examination of some of them at least, shows that 

 they are as inaccurate as they are useless." 



We shall feel interested in watching, as the work proceeds, Prof. 

 Farlow's treatment of the "juggled names" of the puff-ball world 

 and shall keep our readers advised. 



255 



