72 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [ JANUARY 
Moulds, mildews, and mushrooms. 
UNDER the above title Professor Underwood 5 has given us a very interest- 
ing little work on fungi and mycetozoa. The volume seems to be a book of 
today, written especially to aid the American student of this generation and 
in the hope that it will stimulate and help him in the study of the American 
fungus flora. 
The presentation and background of the work takes the standpoint of 
taxonomy, but a taxonomy wonderfully free from the dry diagnoses of most 
systematic descriptions and everywhere combined with interesting accounts of 
life habits and activities. The orders and families are presented and arranged 
largely after the treatment followed in “Die natiirlichen Pflanzenfamilien.” 
Genera are described for the fleshy fungi, the cup fungi (Pezizales) and cer- 
tain groups, containing chiefly parasites from the Ascomycetes and Fungi 
Imperfecti. The groups selected for this more detailed treatment are well 
chosen as those: most likely to satisfy the wants of students who do not have 
access to special literature, or whose training is insufficient to enable them 
to find their way through the varied accounts, good, bad and indifferent, which 
confront beginners at the outset of their studies. 
The keys are clear and precise but are likely to demand from the student 
a considerably greater knowledge of morphology and descriptive mycology 
than is presented by the text. But, after all, such a background cannot be 
given by books and comes only through wide acquaintance with the forms in _ 
the field and laboratory. 
Edible species of fungi receive special treatment, and the book is likely 
to help many to a clearer idea of the structural marks that are really valuable 
as specific characters among the fleshy fungi. 
The book is greatly to be commended for the historical account of taxonomic 
work in mycology in our country, There is first a general account, and then, 
in a chapter on geographical distribution, a brief statement is given of the 
work done in each of the United States and neighboring countries of Canada, 
Greenland, Mexico, Central America, and the West Indies. These chapters 
are likely to prove very interesting to the readers of Professor Underwood's 
ook. Accompanied as they are by a full bibliography, they will be very 
useful and are sure to give an impetus to further exploration and study. One 
is constantly impressed with the fact that the whole book is a plea for more 
work in systematic mycology and more thorough work. 
Special midpiece should be called to the admirably chosen and therefore 
helpful lists of literature following every topic of importance. 
As before indicated, the book presupposes some acquaintance on the part 
of the student with the morphology and life-histories of fungi, and here may 
5 UNDERWOOD, LUCIEN M.: Moulds, mildews, and mushrooms. 12 mo. pp- vee 
227; pl.i1o. New York: Henry Holt & Co, 1899. 
