168 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL. No. 1022 



are giving atmospherics close attention, even 

 though the problems do seem too difficult for 

 them to handle, either in printed memoirs or 

 in lectures before their classes. I beg to utilize 

 the columns of Science in an effort to ascer- 

 tain the existence of such scholars and to 

 solicit their cooperation with me in an en- 

 deavor to stimulate the study of the motions 

 of the atmosphere. 



The TJ. S. daily weather map of the northern 

 hemisphere and The Monthly Weather Re- 

 view will undoubtedly be useful to all earnest 

 students. 



Cleveland Abbe 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 

 The Fungi which Cause Plant Disease. By 



F. L. Stevens, Ph.D. New York, The Mac- 



milan Co. 1913. Pp. Y54. Figs. 449. 



Price $4.00. 



Eighteen years ago the classic work on 

 " Pilzparasitaren Krankheiten der Pflanzen," 

 by Frank, made its appearance, while the 

 " Diseases of Plants Induced by Cryptogamic 

 Parasites," by von Tubeuf and Smith, was 

 published a year later. Despite the fact that 

 a number of efforts have been made within the 

 last few years by American writers, patholo- 

 gists in general have been still looking for a 

 new work that would satisfactorily supplant 

 these older volumes. Stevens has entered the 

 field with another volume which is intended 

 to supplement his earlier and less technical 

 work on " Diseases of Economic Plants." In 

 the words of the author, " effort has been made 

 to avoid duplication of matter contained in 

 that volume." It is to be regretted that but 

 little of the mycological and pathological ac- 

 tivities of the past three years will be found 

 in this new work (1911 in part only). This 

 is to be deplored, since plant pathology has 

 been passing through a period of rapid prog- 

 ress. It will perhaps be only fair, however, 

 to overlook this shortcoming in passing judg- 

 ment on the work in question. To what ex- 

 tent these two volumes will meet the expecta- 

 tions and needs of American students time 

 alone will reveal. Perhaps we are expecting 

 too much, but our mind has pictured the old 



classics as but stepping stones to the desired 

 goal. 



This new volume includes keys to the 

 orders, families and genera of Myxomycetes, 

 Schizomycetes and Eumycetes containing 

 parasitic species. According to the author's 

 statement, " Nonparasitic groups closely re- 

 lated to those that are parasitic have been 

 introduced in the keys merely to give a larger 

 perspective to the student." Directing our at- 

 tention to the Ascomycetes, we may note that 

 the keys are in the main translations from 

 " Die natiirlichen Pflanzenfamilien," with 

 omissions and abbreviations, and occasionally 

 the introduction of new genera. Parallel 

 choices are indicated by marginal indentation, 

 the characters employed in the original being 

 omitted. Turning to the Fungi Imperfecti, we 

 find that after the key to the hyaline-spored 

 Sphseroidacese which follows Engler and 

 Prantl quite closely, the keys appear for the 

 most part to be transcriptions from Clements's 

 " Genera of Fungi " with only slight modifica- 

 tions. The student who can steer his way 

 through the key to the hyaline-spored Sphasroi- 

 dacese without becoming lost in a bewildering 

 tangle of spores, pycnidia and stromata, 

 would deserve early election to Sigma Xi. 



It is not possible to enter into a detailed 

 discussion of the keys, but it seems that the 

 author has relied too much on keys published 

 some years ago, so that they are not always in 

 harmony with our present knowledge. For 

 example, " Conidia not in pycnidia, dark 

 brown " is used as the key character for Melan- 

 conis (p. 279), although it is now known that 

 certain species produce pycnidal {Fusicoccum) 

 and acervular (Coryneum) stages. 



According to the keys the vegetative body 

 of the Schizomycetes is a " single-walled cell " 

 (p. 3) ; Ncemospora is placed under the divi- 

 sion with muticate conidia (p. 538), probably 

 correctly, but the text description says " with 

 a bristle at each end." This genus is given 

 under both the Hyalosporse and the Scoleco- 

 sporse (pp. 538 and 562). 



The experienced mycologist makes little use 

 of keys, but when he does care to use them 

 he will certainly go to the original. The prin- 



