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[April 15, 1909 



CRUSTACEA OF NORWAY. 

 An Account of the Crustacea of Norway. By Prof. 

 G. O. Sars. Vols. i.-v. Vol i., Amphipoda. 

 Pp. 708; 248 plates. Vol. il., Isopoda. Pp. 270; 

 104 plates. Vol. iii., Cumacea. Pp. 115; 72 

 plates. Vol. iv., Copepoda Calanoida. Pp. 171; 

 108 plates. Vol. v., Copepoda Harpacticoida. 

 (Bergen: Published by the Bergen Museum, i8go- 

 1908.) 



THE monumental work under the above title by 

 Prof. G. O. Sars, of Christiania, is still being 

 added to, although the first parts appeared so long 

 ago as 1890. It is indeed no small task that the 

 distinguished author has set himself. From the first 

 he proposed to give a description of all the species 

 of Crustacea hitherto known from Norway, and 

 furthermore, to accompany the diagnoses by accurate 

 figures of all the forms. There was no doubt that 

 a work so extensive and so profusely illustrated 

 would prove of great value to all systematic workers, 

 but there was also little doubt that the publication 

 would spread over years, and the work extend to 

 hundreds of pages and a great number of plates. 

 This has proved to be the case, for the most recent 

 parts published (parts xxiii. and xxiv. of vol. v., 

 1908) bring the total up to 1540 pages of letterpress 

 and 724 plates. 



It is seldom that a work of this kind has been so 

 lavishly illustrated, but Prof. Sars rightly urged that 

 trustworthy figures enable a species to be indentified 

 much more easily than the most elaborate descrip- 

 tions. The plates have been produced by the " auto- 

 graphic " process, and while this falls short of first- 

 class lithography, the figures are all of a good size, 

 and quite sufficiently illustrate the points at issue. 

 Those who have had occasion to use the plates for 

 purposes of identification will agree as to the accuracy 

 and care with which the drawings have been executed. 

 The first volume of this work — that on the Amphi- 

 poda — vias published by a Christiania firm during 

 the years 1890-95. The publisher not wishing to 

 continue, there was some danger that the account 

 would come to a premature end, until the Bergen 

 Museum, with commendable public spirit, stepped 

 in and undertook the responsibility of publishing the 

 remaining volumes. 



The scientific study of fishery problems is of com- 

 paratively recent growth, but nowadays a knowledge 

 of the smaller Crustacea, which are so important a 

 part of the food of fishes, is essential, and it is pre- 

 cisely these forms which Prof. Sars is making recog- 

 nisable by his valuable work. British fishery experts 

 cannot fail to find these volumes indispensable, for 

 they refer to species a large proportion of which 

 occur also in British waters. 



It has been far too generally assumed that the 

 Copepoda is a group containing principally pelagic 

 forms. That- this is by no means the case is emphati- 

 cally shown in the present work. Vol- iv., dealing 

 with the Calanoida, which are in the main plankton 

 forms, contains descriptions of sixty-eight species. 

 The yet incomplete fifth volume, devoted to the 

 Harpacticoida, which are mostly true bottom forms, 

 NO. 2059, VOL. 80I 



has already treated of 182 species, without by any 

 means exhausting the subject. When completed this 

 will furnish the first adequate account ever published 

 of this very extensive and important group. 



Besides giving descriptions of a considerable 

 number of new genera and species, the author has 

 rendered perhaps even greater service by furnishing 

 us for the first time with the means of identifying 

 numerous species established by other writers, but 

 only briefly described, and either unfigured or figured 

 very imperfectly. It cannot be doubted that this work 

 is one of the most important contributions ever made 

 to our knowledge of the Crustacea, and that Prof. 

 Sars deserves the thanks of the scientific world for 

 publishing it in a manner which renders it so readily- 

 accessible. W. A. CUNNINGTON. 



BRITISH FUNGI. 

 Synopsis of the British Basidiomycetes : a Descriptive 

 Catalogue of the Drawings and Specimens in the 

 Department of Botany, British Museum. By 

 Worthington G. Smith. Pp. 531; 5 plates and 145 

 figures in text. (London : Printed by order of the' 

 Trustees of the British Museum, 1908.) Price los. 



A MODERN handbook dealing in a concise form 

 with all the larger British fungi has long been 

 desired by mycologists in this country. The appear- 

 ance of Mr. Worthington G. Smith's " Synopsis " 

 meets this desire in so far as it contains in one volume 

 descriptions of all the British Basidiomycetes {sensti 

 de Bary). 



The new work is of a more popular character than 

 either Lister's monograph of the Mycetozoa or 

 Crombie's Monograph of the British Lichens, 

 references to literature and synonymy being 

 omitted. The genera are provided with keys to the 

 species, and the latter bear numbers which corre- 

 spond to those of Mr. Smith's fine series of coloured 

 drawings in the British Museum. The descriptions 

 are almost without exception confined to field 

 characters, and are for the most part brief. Each 

 genus is illustrated by line drawings. The derivation 

 of both generic and specific names is given, and a 

 full glossary is appended. 



As stated on the title-page, the synopsis is a 

 descriptive catalogue of the drawings and specimens 

 in the department of botany in the British Museum, 

 and for this reason the sequence of genera is practi- 

 cally that of Fries 's Hymenomycetes Europoei 

 (1874). In Fries's arrangement of the Agaricace» 

 the large genus Agaricus (comprising groups of sub- 

 genera arranged according to their spore-colour) is' 

 placed first, followed by a number of other genera, 

 also grouped together according to the colour of their 

 spores. Modern writers have given Fries's sub- 

 genera generic rank, and have modified his arrange- 

 ment so as to bring all the genera together accord- 

 ing to their spore-colour. The author of the present 

 work treats Fries's subgenera as genera, but leaves 

 them in the same sequence as the Hymenomycetes 

 Europoei. To a number of amateur mycologists who 

 are accustomed only to the more modern method, this 

 arrangement -will probably be somewhat inconvenient. 



