SS 
1901] CURRENT LITERATURE 65 
interest to note that in Michigan it is in some places so abundant as to kill out 
nearly every tree. The parasite itself is attacked by a fungus, Wad/rothiella 
arceuthobtt Peck, which apparently serves to keep it in check somewhat. 
In the same bulletin are given notes on the trees and a list of the flowering 
plants growing on the station farm, as well as a list of the few of the com- 
moner diseases of cultivated plants observed there.— Ernst A. BESSEY. 
D. T. MAcDouGAL"*s has studied the bulbils which are formed in the 
axils of the aerial stems of Lysimachia terrestris, and regards them as repre- 
senting a new category of propagative bodies. They are branches of 
restricted development, and are formed under conditions unfavorable for 
seed formation, diffuse light and low temperature apparently being the prin- 
cipal inciting causes. noe a are a baie bean sues! organs of any kind, 
and resemble rhizomes ins which they are 
borne. The “germination”’ of the bulbil occurs without any 7 appreciable rest- 
ing period, and is followed by the final stages of the oe of the 
stele, which was checked during the formation of the bulbil. ulbil 
becomes the main axis of the new plant, and does not Pee except gradu- 
ally, after the manner of a rhizome, into which it be —J.M.C. 
MUSHROOMS ARE DISCUSSED in two recent Experiment Station bulletins, 
one from Idaho™ and the other from North Carolina. Both give rules for 
avoiding poisonous fungi and analyses showing the food value of the edible 
species. This has been greatly overrated, for, compared with other foods, 
these fungi have not only a small heating power but have also a low nitrogen 
content. In the former bulletin a few species are popularly described with 
the aid of good half-tone plates, while in the bulletin from North Carolina all 
or nearly all of the edible species reported in the state are described, rather 
too technically it would seem. is technicality, combined with the lack of 
illustrations, leads one to fear that it will not be serviceable as a popular 
guide. The glossary, five pages in length, is no doubt necessary but might 
have been made more accurate. The definition of basidia as “cellular 
processes of certain mushroom-bearing spores”’ is probably a typographical 
error, but is plainly very misleading as it stands.— ERNST A. BESSEY 
THE THIRD EDITION of Sturgis’s Literature of Plant Diseases** brings the 
*3 Propagation of ee terrestris. Bull. N. Y. Bot. Garden 2: 82-89. IgoI. 
™ HENDERSON, L. ushrooms or toadstools: a poner food product. Bull. 
Idaho Agr. Exp. Sta. no. phy Pp. 27-54. figs. 1-72. Moscow. Marc 
*S Hyams, C. W.: Edible mushrooms of si Carolina. Bull. N. C. Agr. Exp. 
Sta. no. 177. pp. 25-58. West Raleigh. Dec. 1900. 
© Sturais. W.C., Literature of plant diseases. A provisional bibliography x the 
more important works ‘pabhabed by the U. S. Department of Agriculture and the 
cultural experiment stations of the United States from 1887 to 1900 inclusive, on ye 
gous and bacterial diseases of economic Saag hae Conn. Agr. Exp. Sta. for year 
ending Oct. 31, 1900. Part III. pp. 255-297. 
