Reviews and Book Notices. 331 
Peziza badia. A. On dung, mostly in pastures. 
Lachnea umbrovum. A, Stropharia semiglobata. 
L. dalmeniensis. A. Panaeolus retirugis. 
Spherospora trechispora. A.K. Coprinus rvadiatus. 
Isavia favinosa. A. Humaria granulata. 
Ascobolus furfuracens. 
In pastures. Ascophanus carneus. 
Nolanea pascua. A. equinus. 
Agaricus campestris. Pilobolus crystallinus. 
Psilocybe foenisectt. Mucor mucedo. 
Psathyra corrugis. Var. cuninus. On dog-dung in 
Bovista nigrescens. Last year’s tomato-house, where it ought 
growth. not to be. 
ee Os 
Toadstools and Mushrooms of the Country side, by Edward Step, 
F.L.S. Price 5s. net, pp. xvit+i43. A handy little book written in a 
popular style, and intended for the benefit of the country rambler as an aid 
to the identification of some of the larger fungi likely to be met with. 
In this it will serve its purpose so far as black-and-white photographs 
supplemented by popular descriptions can. It is illustrated by 8 coloured 
and 128 half-tone plates. Each illustration is accompanied by a chatty 
discourse on the object represented, fully detailing all its observable 
features, time of appearing, and habitat. Edible qualities are not by any 
means overlooked. Each treatise is headed by both common and 
technical name. The introduction contains a very good popular general 
description of the structure of a toadstool and its method of growth. 
The photos, mostly full page, well represent the species, and were they in 
natural colours would be periection; plates 13 and 86 are rather poor. 
The book appears at a very opportune time of the year, when the woodland 
rambler will not have far to seek ere he finds an opportunity of making prac- 
tical use of the work. There is a very useful and most instructive chapter 
on toadstool-hunting ; an index of both common and technical names ; and 
a Classified list of the species described. The book is nicely got up, anda 
convenient size and shape for the pocket.—C.C. 
Flowerless Plants: How and Where they Grow. By S. Leonard Bastin. 
Cassell & Co., 1913. Pp.xi.t152. 6s. net. This is one of the numerous 
natural history books, with attractive illustrations, published by Messrs. 
Cassell. The author tells us his aim is to deal with flowerless plants on 
nature-study lines, and adopts a racy and simple style easily followed by 
non-botanical readers. The book opens with a general survey in which 
the lower plants are compared with the Angiosperms. The remaining six 
chapters deal with ferns, mosses, liverworts, alga, lichens, and fungi. 
The illustrations, some of which are excellent, consist of four autochrome 
plates and seventy-nine photographs taken by the author. His treatment 
of the plants selected for notice is usually very superficial, and betrays a 
want of knowledge of the true nature-study method. Some of his de- 
scriptions are not very illuminating, e.g., on page 126, dealing with fungi, 
he says that because of the absence of chlorophyll these plants ‘ cannot 
live independently. Hence we shall always find fungi living on some- 
thing.’ Which is doubtless true. Again, ‘the brown dust’ from the 
gills of a mushroom, when examined under a magnifying glass, ‘is 
resolved into atoms which have been called spores.’ The Zygnemas are 
described (page 89) as ‘cloudy masses pale green in colour,’ and are 
illustrated by a photo-micrograph of a meshwork of four or five filaments 
and labelled ‘A Fresh-Water Tree.’ In dealing with the several large 
divisions of plants he seldom brings out clearly the great differences 
between them and fails to indicate the more important lessons to be 
learnt from their study. 
1913 Sept. 1. 
