170 



SCIENCE 



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



intimation that it is synonymous witli 

 Gylindrosporium padi Karst. (p. 562). Phyl- 

 lostica hortorum Speg. is given with no refer- 

 ence to the European work which showed that 

 this egg plant fungus is an Ascoehyta (p. 

 487). Strumella sacchari Cke. is listed as the 

 only representatiye of the genus (p. 656), al- 

 though it has been definitely shown that this 

 fungus should be referred to Coniothyrium. 



The author has very consistently followed 

 the practise of deeapitalization of specific 

 names throughout the test, and for this he 

 should be commended, although the rules of 

 nomenclature dictate otherwise. It is difficult, 

 however, to understand why species names be- 

 came sufficiently important in the index to be 

 uniformly capitalized! The very general bo- 

 tanical practise of italicizing binomials has 

 been completely ignored, and will probably 

 meet with little approval. The misspelling of 

 scientific names is altogether too frequent. 

 These are well illustrated by " Pithiacysiis 

 citriophora" (p. 7Y) and " D. wilhomii" (p. 

 144). 



It is to be hoped that the accuracy of the 

 author citations for the binomials is not indi- 

 cated by the entire lack of any regular and 

 consistent practise in their transcription and 

 arrangement. Without regard to the length 

 of the author's name, it is abbreviated 

 (Sh. = Shear) or written out in full (Miiller- 

 Thurgau, p. 148). The same author's name 

 may be written in full or abbreviated in a va- 

 riety of ways, and in many cases these ab- 

 breviations are not in accord with mycologieal 

 practise (e. g., D. By., DeB. = De Bary ; E. & H., 

 E. & He., Er. & Hu., ^ Eriksson and Hen- 

 ning.) There are numerous cases of full 

 names terminated by a period, indicating an 

 abbreviation, and dozens of abbreviations 

 without a period, indicating the full name of 

 an author. Thus the amateur reader might 

 wonder who Prill, West, Hohn, March, Plow, 

 Host, Berk, Karst, Heuff and others were, 

 while for Frank., Brizi. and Petch., he might 

 imagine the existence of such mycologists as 

 Frankenstein, Brizioski and Petchnikoff. 

 There are many errors in the spelling of au- 

 thor abbreviations, and in some cases they 



bear little resemblance to the original (e. g., 

 Farm. ^ Farneti ; Hu. or Hem. :^ Henning ; 

 Fes.^ Fries; Car.^ Carvara; Gus.= Giissow; 

 Een. 1= Eeinke ; Heuff. = Heufler ; Nebr. = 

 Neuman.) 



The profusion of illustrations (Figs. 1-449) 

 certainly adds greatly to the value of the 

 book. They are dravm quite extensively 

 from American authors and are in the main 

 well chosen. But in the Fungi Imperfecti 

 many of the figures taken from Lindau's treat- 

 ment in " Die natiirlichen Pflanzenfamilien " 

 appear rather crude. The author's effort to 

 include " at least one illustration of each 

 genus that is of importance in the United 

 States " is a very commendable feature. 



The illustrations are reproduced with the 

 original figures or letters used in their ex- 

 planation, even though in some cases (Fig. 

 288) they may be almost microscopic in size. 

 The presence of numbers and varieties of fig- 

 ures and letters not used in the legends (e. g., 

 Figs. 9, 82, 88, 275,^413, etc.) may not be of 

 any harm but they give a scrap-book appear- 

 ance. The explanations of figures are in many 

 cases too short (Figs. 13, 20, 129, 145, etc.) or 

 incomplete (Fig. 351). There is no uniform 

 style of punctuation in the legends, great va- 

 riety prevailing (e. g.. Figs. 1Y9, 198, 200, 

 421). Apparently the author has not been 

 able to entirely discard the old practise of 

 calling a pycnidium a perithecium (Fig. 354, 

 also p. 493). 



It would seem a little questionable to use a 

 figure of a germinating teleutospore of Oym- 

 nosporangium (Fig. 266) showing two promy- 

 celia from a single cell in a work which 

 should present the typical rather than the 

 abnormal. 



Following the customary practise, the il- 

 lustrations are credited to various vsrriters. H 

 the student should assume the authenticity of 

 the acknowledgments, as he naturally would, 

 he would get some wrong ideas of the photo- 

 graphic activity of at least one author. Fif- 

 teen half-tones of basidiomycetes are pre- 

 sumably " after Clements." Five of these can 

 be found in Freeman's " Minnesota Plant 

 Diseases " as " Originals," one is from Lloyd, 



