436 



NATURE 



[September 5, 1895 



grows on conifers ! In this group we also find Geopyxis 

 Persoon (emended) Myc."Eur. i. p. 224 (not p. 42, accord- 

 ing to both .Saccardo and Mr. Massee) : Persoon did not 

 make Gi-opyxis a genus, altliougli Saccardo also credits 

 him with having done so ; he published it as a division of 

 Pesisa, and Saccar4o is the first who made it a genus, 

 and therefore it ought to be Ccopyyis Sacc. One of the 

 species is the beautiful Pczisa coccinea of old authors, 

 transferred by Phillips to Lachnea, by Saccardo to Sarco- 

 JH'/Z/J, and now by Mr. Massee to Gfopy.vis. The division 

 of the Ciir/iosir includes the genera Pis/zir, Otidea, 

 Huinariii, and others. A new genus, Currcyclla, has 

 been made to include Pezisa radiila and P. iracIiYcarpa. 

 Are we to assume that the Cuban species Alassca qitis- 

 quiliarum grows also in Britain ? 



In the family of the Hclvcllea there is much less 

 alteration and rearrangement ; but even there, two genera 

 have been retained that were considered unnecessary by 

 Phillips and Saccardo : Cudonia Fr., to contain Lcotia 

 circinans, which differs from others of the genus in the 

 possession of filiform spores, and Mitrop/iora Ldv., in 

 which are placed two species of Morchella, M. gigas and 

 M. semilibera. In these the lower half of the pileus is 

 free from the stalk. 



The numerous changes, however much we regret them, 

 testify to the care with which Mr. Massee has treated 

 the subject. He has omitted to mention one point of 

 considerable morphological interest : that the abnormal 

 many-spored condition of the ascus in Tyiiipoiiis is due 

 to budding of the original eight spores in the ascus. 



The classified list of fungi, issued by Dr. Mc.-\lpine, has 

 been compiled to assist vegetable pathologists in deter- 

 mining the diseases of plants due to these organisms. 

 The knowledge of Australian fungi is as yet very incom- 

 plete, and we may expect the list to be largely augmented. 

 M. C. Cooke's " Handbook of Australian Fungi " has 

 served as a basis for the present work, and to it have been 

 added the genera and species recorded by the more 

 recent collectors and workers in this branch of botany. 

 Australia possesses such a unique flora of the phanero- 

 gams, that we should have liked some indication of the 

 fungi that belong exclusively to that country. The 

 author has mainly followed the method of classification 

 which has been adopted by Saccardo in his " .Sylloge 

 Fungorum." Dr. Mc.Mpine retains the Ilyplioniycclcs as 

 a class by themselves, but describes them as imperfect 

 Ascotnycetes ; this is hardly correct, for lliough many of 

 them have been proved to be form-genera, others are 

 unrelated so far as is yet known. 



Besides giving us a list of fungi, Dr. Mc.-Mpine has 

 drawn up some very instructive tables. The number of 

 fungi recorded varies very much from colony to colony. 

 Victoria heads the list with 1070 species, though we sus- 

 pect this position of pre-eminence is due to the presence of 

 Baron von Mueller, rather than to the abundance of fungi. 

 Queensland records 1060 species, a large percentage of 

 the whole due to the labours of an indefatigable worker, 

 Mr. F. M. Bailey. Brisbane has 739 species, and New 

 South Wales lags far lichind with 406. There is much 

 work evidently to be done before the localities arc all 

 worked out. The total number for Australia and Tas- 

 mania is 2294, as compared with 5040 recorded for 

 Britain. The total number of species known to science 

 NO. 134Q. vor.. 52] 



is somewhere about 40,000. Dr. Mc.^lpine has also pre- 

 pared a host-index, whicli presents many points of 

 interest. On Casiitirimi, that peculiar Australian tree, we 

 find Follies ignian'i/s^ a cosmopolitan species. Eucalyptus 

 seems specially afliicted — leaves, bark, branches and 

 trunk have all their separate fungal parasites. Tlie 

 Coiiiposi/ce are hosts to but two, an .Kcidium and a 

 Syncliytrium, evidently an incomplete account. 



The Agaricincic and Po/yporm ha\e received a much 

 larger share of attention than the more minute forms of 

 the Discomyci'les and the Pyrenoiiiycctes ; .Australian 

 collectors give an account of but fi\e Nccirias and two 

 Valsas, but these forms are very easily overlooked. The 

 Pliycoinycetes are also very sparingly represented ; there 

 are two Peronosporas, one on tobacco-leaves, the other 

 on the onion. There is no record of potato disease, nor 

 of salmon disease ; we can only congratulate the colony 

 on its immunity. 



In addition to the authority and date for each fungus. 

 Dr. Mc.-\lpinc gives the locality in Australia, the habitat 

 and a description in English of the species, but in no 

 case does he indicate the characters of the genus ; the 

 list thus strikes the reader as being very imperfect, and 

 the absence of all information as to the size of the par- 

 ticular plants renders it less useful than it might otherwise 

 have been. We think he has vainly spent his strength 

 in his attempt to provide an English equivalent for the 

 scientific name of each fungus. Popular specific names 

 ha\e not been given even to flowering plants, such as the 

 diflfcrcnt kinds of Myoso/is or C/rpis. and such names are 

 equally valueless in the case of fungi. 



Dr. McAlpine has recently published, in " tUiidcs to 

 Growers," a most ustful and practical account of the 

 disease of onions caused by cclworms, with the best 

 methods of cure. The worms live in the soil, and various 

 dressings are recommended, suitable rotation of crops, or 

 burning the surface of the land. This particular eehvonn 

 attacks the stems of plants, and in the case of the onimi 

 destroys the bulbs, leaving tin- roots unharmed. 



A. L. -S. 



OUP BOO A' SHELF. 



The Climates of the Geological Past, and t/teir Relation to 

 the Evolution of the Sun. By Eug. Dubois. (London : 

 Swan .Sonncnschein and Co., 1895.) 

 Thk first part of this essay consists of a brief and 

 judicious summary of the geological evidence as to great 

 changes of climate in past ages, while the second part is 

 an attempt to explain the causes of such variations. 

 Various well-known theories have been advanced to ac- 

 count for the phenomena, but none have met with general 

 acceptance ; a ii^w years ago Dr. Ncumayr wrote : " Most 

 plausible and simple would it certainly be were llic sun a 

 variable star that at different periods emits different 

 quantities of heat ; but for this no proof is forthcoming." 

 (NaTURK, vol. xlii. p. 180.) The author of the present 

 work seems to have adopted Dr. Neumayr's suggestion, 

 but goes further and attempts to show that llu- postulated 

 changes of solar r.idiation have actually taken place. In 

 a general way, the fact that the sun must once have been 

 hotter, has been frec|uently stated as a possible cause of 

 the higher temperatures during early geological times, 

 but a gradual cooling of the sun is insufficient to explain 

 all the vicissitudes of geological climates. Basing his 

 estimate on the relative jiroportions of stars of different 

 spectroscopic types, the author considers that the sun has 



I 



