>2l8 



NA TURh 



[January 9, 1896 



meat can be properly and constantly basted by this 

 process, which means that it cannot possess the best 

 qualities produced by proper roasting. The roitsscur, 

 whom Brillat Savarin considered to be like the poet 

 " bom not made," was skilful with the spit, and certainly 

 no oven-roasted bird can approach one cooked in that 

 manner. Mr. Knight becomes confused in regard to 

 the frying processes. To dry-fry, the French word 

 sauter is alone applicable ; to wet-fry, the term is frire. 

 By the former, the thing fried is supposed to be tossed 

 • or " made to leap," hence sauter; by the latter, it is 

 boiled in seething fat or oil — not in a saiite-^^x\., which 

 is too shallow, but in a friture-T^an or frying-kettle. 

 Clarified beef suet or prime fat is superior to oil for 

 many things ; it does not heat so rapidly, nor does it boil 

 over as the latter is prone to do. The object of stewing 

 is not to extract all the nutritive juices of food. On the 

 ■ contrary, in all the best examples of the process, those 

 juices are sealed up to begin with as much as possible, 

 by blanching in the case of white meat, or dry frying 

 (the faire revenir of French cookery) in that of brown. 

 After blanching, white meat is refreshed, and then laid 

 on a couch of vegetables covered with broth and very 

 gently stewed ; while after having been seized, brown 

 meat is moistened with warm broth just brought to the 

 boil once, and then simmered gently till done. Of 

 braising there are several processes, white meat being 

 done in one way, brown in another. The faire revenir 

 process is carried out in regard to the latter, and this is 

 now also done in the case oi ba:uf a la mode — "mettez-Ia," 

 says Dubois, "dans une braisiere ou casserole longue 

 avec du lard fondu ; faites-la revenir sur un feu modere 

 j usqu'a ce qu'elle soit bien saisie et coloree : mouillez 

 alors la viande." Lastly, with reference to soups, we 

 should call a perfect consomme the finest rather than the 

 " richest " form of soup ; the latter term would be better 

 applied to bisques, thick turtle, and all to which eggs, 

 butter and cream are added. These few slips however 

 are, as we have said, excusable on the part of an author 

 who has given so much valuable information in the 

 major portion of his work. In recommending it to all 

 educated readers who are interested in the subject, we 

 would say to those who may desire to use it in their 

 instruction of the illiterate— do not lose sight of the fact 

 that over-elaboration of the scientific and theoretical 

 aspect of cookery may tend to the somewhat perfunctory 

 teaching of its practical side. For this reason, as far as 

 teaching in board-schools and evening continuation 

 classes is concerned, let sound practical instruction be 

 the main point, with just sufficient of theoretical teaching 

 to explain the scientific reasons which render this, that, 

 and the other step necessary in the different methods of 

 cooking, and why various food-stuffs differ in nourishing 

 value. 



THE STUDY OF FUNGI. 

 Introduction to the Study of Fungi, their Organography, 

 Classification, and Distribution ; for the use of Col- 

 lectors. By M. C. Cooke, M.A., LL.D., A.L.S. Pp. 

 iT.-f-36o. (London : Adam and Charles Black, 1895.) 



AS a terminal group, the Fungi possess but little 

 interest for those whose aim is to gain an insight 

 iinto the general scheme of evolution of the plant-world. 

 NO. 1367, VOL 53] 



On the other hand, it may safely be asserted, without fear 

 of contradiction, that no group of plants has better repaid 

 the investigations of the specialist, as illustrated by the 

 brilliant discoveries of De Bary, Brefeld, Ward, and 

 others. The important part played by parasitic fungi in 

 connection with numerous plant and animal diseases has 

 of late years jalso attracted considerable attention, and 

 with the exception of Great Britain, almost every civilised 

 country in the world has one or more institutions specially 

 devoted to the investigation of this branch of the subject. 

 Another branch of the study deals with the classification 

 or systematic arrangement of fungi, the importance of 

 which can only be realised when it is known that above 

 forty thousand described species have to be dealt with in 

 such a manner that their specific individuality, affinities, 

 location in the scheme of classification, and distribution, 

 may be easily accessible to workers in other branches of 

 the study. In the work under consideration, the author 

 has given the amount of morphological information he 

 considers necessary for the systematist to possess, at the 

 same time indicating the additions to our knowledge 

 resulting from the investigation of the life-history of 

 individual species ; but it is in the sections devoted to 

 classification and distribution that Dr. Cooke appears at 

 his best, and here we find embodied the matured ex- 

 perience gained during the author's connection with Kew, 

 where he had charge of the unrivalled collection of fungi, 

 with its thousands of type specimens, in addition to the 

 opportunities of examining numerous collections, received 

 at different periods, from every quarter of the globe. In 

 the chapter on classification, Brefeld's researches are 

 analysed, and his proposed system of classification given 

 in a tabular form. Saccardo's arrangement of the fungi 

 is also thoroughly explained and criticised, as " it will 

 doubtless come into universal use where expedients are 

 valued rather for their utility than their consistency." 

 The above quotation refers to the elevation of the 

 Friesian sub-genera of the Agaricini to generic rank by 

 Saccardo ; and, while admitting that there is an apparent 

 trifling with a preconceived conception of generic value 

 in elevating to the same level, the sub-genera and genera 

 of the same author, more especially when the genera are 

 so broad, as in the Friesian system ; yet perhaps in these 

 days utility is of more value than consistency in a 

 purely systematic work, the real value of which depends 

 on the ease with which the organisms of which it treats 

 can be recognised, and this can usually be more readily 

 accomplished by the use of artificial methods than by 

 adhering strictly to a supposed uniform standard of 

 relationship, at all events so far as species and genera 

 are concerned. 



The author advocates the continued use of the term 

 spore for the reproductive body of the Basidiomycetes, 

 and sporidiuiti for that of the Ascomycetes ; with this we 

 cannot agree, considering basidiospore for the former, and 

 ascospore for the latter as conveying more definite in- 

 formation, and further, freeing the subject from the very 

 vague term spore. 



We cannot accept either of the following statements, 

 which certainly should be qualified in a future edition of 

 the book. " Of the 9600 known species of Hymenomy. 

 cetal Fungi, really parasitic species are almost, if not 

 wholly unknown." " All the parasites on living leaves 



