Febbuaby 12, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



263 



line from a heterogeneous mixture of small 

 types differing gametically among themselves. 

 Here we have a real explanation compatible 

 with the belief that to be inherited variations 

 must have affected the germ cell structurally 

 — a view to which the author apparently ad- 

 heres. 



Mendel's original investigations are briefly 

 discussed by the author, but all of the numer- 

 ous, recent contributions along this line are 

 left untouched. Of course the immense 

 amount of labor necessary to compile a book 

 of seven hundred pages in a new subject 

 would necessitate the work being actually 

 behind the date of the preface, but one would 

 like to see more notice taken of the many 

 valuable investigations of contemporary biolo- 

 gists. A more extended consideration of late 

 cytological and Mendelian research would 

 have changed materially the author's treat- 

 ment of atavism., prepotency and the determi- 

 nation of sex. 



The work as a whole, however, brings to- 

 gether an enormous number of facts along 

 diverse lines, and, though largely zoological, 

 will undoubtedly prove of great value as a 

 reference basis for a course of lectures on the 

 subject, even if the new facts, which are con- 

 tinually being contributed in such profusion, 

 make it of less value as an ironclad text-book. 

 Edward M. East 



The Connecticut Agbicultueal 

 ExPEEiMENT Station 



Mushrooms, Edible and Otherwise. By M. E. 

 Hard, M.A. Large octavo. Pp. xii -1- 609, 

 with 504 half-tone figures from photographs, 

 many of them full-page plates. Distributed 

 by The Ohio Library Co., Columbus, Ohio. 

 Under the above title Mr. Hard has given 

 us an exceedingly interesting and valuable 

 book upon a subject in which every one is 

 interested, whether he is a botanist or not. 

 The book is intended primarily for the be- 

 ginner and a chapter including such sub- 

 jects as. Why Study Mushrooms? Mushrooms 

 and Toadstools, How to Preserve Mushrooms, 

 etc., and An Analytical Key, is written in 

 words so simple and yet so accurate that even 

 the beginning student will gain a ready hold 



upon the group and will not be encumbered 

 with a load of \iseless and unscientific data. 

 As the late Dr. Kellerman states in the intro- 

 duction, " The author does not write for the 

 specially educated few, but for the mass of 

 intelligent people — those who read and study, 

 but who observe more." Thus the work is in- 

 tended to appeal more especially to the people 

 at large, but there is also much good in it for 

 the college student of mycology. The generic 

 and specific descriptions, and the great range 

 of forms depicted in word and picture, are so 

 nicely worked out that the book is one of the 

 very best of the American publications of its 

 kind. Without doubt this is the finest and 

 most carefully arranged set of half-tone 

 figures of American Agarics to be found in a 

 single book. 



A little more than one half (349 pages) of 

 the book is devoted to the Agarics, the re- 

 mainder being divided between the Poly- 

 poracese, Hydnaceae, Phelephoraceae, Clavaria- 

 ceae, Tremellini, Gasteromycetes, Ascomycetes, 

 and a chapter each on the Myxomycetes, 

 Eecipes for Cooking Mushrooms, and How to 

 Grow Mushrooms. These chapters are char- 

 acterized by the same interesting style and 

 excellent illustrations. 



The author is determined that every one 

 shall come to know mushrooms, first from the 

 practical side to be able to identify the edible 

 ones, and finally to know them from a more 

 scientific standpoint, and then to be led to 

 the broader study of mycology as a whole. 

 The student of this book will unconsciously 

 be led along this very path. As one turns the 

 pages of the book he is delighted almost be- 

 yond expression, and he feels that Mr. Hard 

 has rendered a great service to science in 

 general and to mycology in particular in giv- 

 ing us this excellent work. 



Kaymond J. Pool 



The UNrvEESiTT or Nebeasea 



SPECIAL ARTICLES 



NOTES ON THE FIRST GENERATION HYBRID OF 



OENOTHERA LATA ? X 0. GIGAS C? 



During the summer of 1907 three offspring 

 of Oenothera lata 2X0. gigas S were reared 

 to maturity in the garden at the Station for 



