32 The Botanical Gazette. [January, 
This first volume is devoted to the Basidiomycetes, beginning with 
the Gasteromycetes. The descriptions are accompanied with few criti: 
cal notes, and no indication of geographical distribution, or relative 
abundance, which will somewhat curtail its usefulness to American 
students. The few illustrations are crudely drawn and wretchedly 
printed. The rage and general make up of the volume are, 
however, excellen 
much pee of opinion regarding the limitations of ¢ 
species and genera, especially in the Hymenomycetes, and the present — 
work shows a number of deviations which will not be satisfactory t0 
many. The matter can better be discussed elsewhere, however; it will 
suffice to note that the genus Agaricus is cut down until it includes 
only twelve species, while in Cooke’s Handbook it embraced 452 spe 
cies, and in Stevenson’s recent Handbook of British fungi it embraces 
782 species. 
A botanical dictionary. 
For a long time there has been much need for a revised dictionary 
of botanical terms. The recent rapid growth of the science and its 
extension into new fields has introduced many technical terms not 
found in former works of the kind, of which the last one issued was 
by Paxton and Lindley, dated 1868. The work by A. A. Crozier,” 
from the press of Henry Holt & Co.,is therefore a timely publication. 
It defines over five thousand words, very few of which are obsolete 
terms. The vowel sounds and accent of the words are indicated, but 
the derivation is not given. Not only exclusively technical terms are _ 
given a place, which are for the most part also found in the Centuly — 
dictionary, but also other words, which have beside their usual mean- 
ing a special botanical application, e. g., accessory, aggregation, entire 
drooping. 
It.is not surprising to find that the work does not include all shes 
terms which the reader of recent botanical writings may desire to 
have defined. Sometimes the word is sae but without mentioa — 
of the particular specific application of it, e.g., hadrome, leptome, 4 
stereome, bulliform, as descriptive of c eee peculiar structures inf 
grass leaves. Sometimes the word is omitted entirely, e. g., aérotrop 
ism, carene, chemotactic, thermotonus. The number of omitte@ — 
words, especially of those belonging to vegetable physiology, appeals i 
to be considerable, but possibly not larger than any compilation w' 
be likely to show upon its first issue. If the book meets with the suc 
Peon 
1Crozier, A. A.—A dictionary = botanical terms. 8vo. pp. 292. Hest) 
Holt & Co., New York, 1892, $2 : ae 
