568 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXX. No. 773 



Thus while the book is still essentially a key 

 to the Fungi in Saccardo, it covers also the 

 Fungi in Eehm's " Diseomyceten " and in- 

 cludes the families and genera of the lichens 

 as treated in Engler and Prantl's " Pflanzen- 

 familien." This treatment of the lichens is 

 in full accord with modern botanical ideas as 

 given in the lecture rooms of our best botan- 

 ists, and yet we imagine that many a conserv- 

 ative botanist will be somewhat taken aback 

 when he finds how absolutely the line be- 

 tween " fungi " and " lichens " has been ob- 

 literated. Thus family 18 is Sphaeriaceae 

 (" fungi ") ; family 19, Verrucariaceae (" lich- 

 ens ") ; family 20, Hypocreaceae (" fungi ") ; 

 family 21, Dothidiaceae (" fungi ") ; family 

 22, Mycoporaceae ("lichens"), and so on; 

 while family 36, Caliciaceae, includes both 

 " fungi " and " lichens." 



The " Key to Orders and Families " (pp. 

 1-6) gives the plan of the book, the principal 

 succession being PJiycomycetes, Ascomycetes, 

 Basidiomyceies and Fungi Imperfecti. The 

 boundaries of the first of these are consider- 

 ably enlarged by the inclusion of the Bacteria 

 (five families) and the Myxobacteria (one 

 family). In the treatment of the remaining 

 families of PJiycomycetes they are very prop- 

 erly regarded as degenerated Chlorophyceae; 

 so we find brief characterizations of such algal 

 orders as Protococcales, Spirogyrales, Vauch- 

 eriales and Confervales. "We imagine that 

 some fungologists of the old school will be 

 distinctly shocked by this close association of 

 fungi and algae. The inclusion of Uredinales 

 {Uredinaceae and Ustilaginaceae) in the 

 Ascomycetes, while very acceptable to the 

 writer of this notice, will be frowned upon by 

 many botanists who prefer to regard them as 

 in some way entitled to admission to the 

 Basidiomyceies. These examples may serve 

 to show that the author of the book has suc- 

 ceeded in putting into it some of his ideas as 

 to relationship, which must add much to the 

 interest as well as the usefulness of the work, 

 especially in the hands of advanced students. 



The " Guide to the Volumes of Saccardo's 

 Sylloge Fungorum " near the end of the book 

 will prove very helpful to every user of the 



many-volumed work. Likewise the alpha- 

 betical index to the families in Saccardo's 

 Sylloge Fungorum, and Rehm's Diseomy- 

 ceten will be of the highest value to the 

 mycological student. Nor must be omit refer- 

 ence to the glossary of Latin and English 

 terms which will help many a student who is 

 rusty in his Latin to " dig out " the descrip- 

 tions in Saccardo. 



In his preface, the author says : "' No at- 

 tempt has been made to revise the genera, ex- 

 cept where the treatment had lagged behind 

 current practise, as is particularly true of the 

 lichens." And again : " Questions of nomen- 

 clature have necessarily been left largely to 

 one side, but no hesitation has been felt in 

 making certain corrections. These have dealt 

 mostly with mistaken or neglected translitera- 

 tion, and with faulty composition." Still 

 again, " A considerable number of sesqui- 

 pedalian words have been shortened and the 

 greater number of hybrid names have been 

 corrected." 



The last quotation which we make is one 

 that should be read by every student of the 

 fungi — " The mycologist must have a fair 

 equipment of technical terms, as well as a 

 Latin vocabulary, and the sooner these are ac- 

 quired the better." 



The book must at once become indispen- 

 sable in every botanical library, and no doubt 

 will be in demand by every mycologist who 

 has access to Saccardo and Rehm. Moreover, 

 it will not take long for the student of the' 

 fungi to find that he can identify his fungi so 

 far as genera are concerned, by means of this 

 handy little book. 



Charles E. Bessey 



The Univeksitt of Nebraska 



SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES 



The closing (October) number of Volume 

 10 of the Transactions of the American 

 Mathematical Society contains the following 

 papers : 



C. N. Moore : " The summability of the develop- 

 ments in Bessel functions, with applications." 



G. D. Birkhoff: " Singular points of ordinary 

 linear differential equations." 



G. A. Miller: "Automorphisms of order two." 



