July 31, 1914] 



SCIENCE 



171 



one from Hard and four are from Atkinson's 

 " Mushrooms." 



According to the preface, " abundant cita- 

 tions to the more important papers are given, 

 sufficient, it is believed, to put the student in 

 touch with the literature of the subject." 

 These are distributed through the book as five 

 separate bibliographies, one for each of the 

 principal divisions or classes, vpith a list of 

 " some of the most useful books," at the end 

 of the volume. It is difficult to detect any 

 principle that has been followed in the selec- 

 tion of references, since some very unimpor- 

 tant work is cited while the student is left in 

 the dark concerning the sources of informa- 

 tion for some more important fungi. 



The citations in the five general bibliog- 

 raphies are in neither alphabetical arrange- 

 ment nor chronological order, but are listed 

 in part in the order in which they are used. 

 The climax is reached in the list of " some of 

 the most useful books," 1-29 being arranged 

 alphabetically by authors, while 30-64 are ap- 

 parently not arranged at all. From 1-46, the 

 author's initials, when used at all, stand first, 

 while from 4Y to the end the reverse order is 

 followed. 



Eeferring to all the bibliographies, it can be 

 very emphatically stated that clearness is 

 sacrificed for brevity. There is much waste 

 space on each page that might have been 

 utilized to good advantage. At the beginning 

 of the first bibliography a key is given to the 

 abbreviations used for the U. S. Department 

 of Agriculture and Experimental Station pub- 

 lications, and a few of the more common seri- 

 als, and this is followed by a statement that 

 " other abbreviations are those usually em- 

 ployed or readily understood." This can 

 hardly be true unless the book is used by stu- 

 dents gifted with more than ordinary insight. 

 It is extremely doubtful if such citations as 

 the following would be clear to the average 

 student: " O. E. S. B. 33: 308. 1896; Mo. 

 Eruit B. 17: 1910; B. S. M. d.Er 8: 22, 1892; 

 Agr. Soe. 8: 292, 1894; N. S. E. Wales, 93; 

 Unt. 9; F. B. 238: 14, 1907; Eept. Mic. Vio., 

 K S. "Wales, 1909; Zeit. f. L. u. F. 408, 1910; 

 Euhland, Diss. 1903." The bibliographies con- 



tain numerous errors, typographical or other- 

 wise, and there is at least one "Miss. Kew" 

 (p. 111). The omission of the initials of au- 

 thors in many cases is a confusing feature, 

 and the errors of punctuation give some rather 

 odd combinations (e. g., Farlow, W. G. B. 

 Bussey, Inst., 415, 1876; Detmers, O., B4; 

 1891). When a personal knowledge of an au- 

 thor is necessary in order that one may cor- 

 rectly interpret a citation, the beginner is 

 certainly subjected to an unnecessary and an 

 unjust handicap. 



In the literature citations the author in 

 many cases does not even follow his ovsm key. 

 For example, C. Bak. is given as the abbrevi- 

 ation for the Centralbl. f. Bakt. etc., II Abth., 

 but this publication is listed also in four other 

 ways. In the various bibliographies thirteen 

 different combinations of abbreviations are 

 used for the Berichte d. Deutsch. Bot. Gesell- 

 schaft, but first place must be assigned to the 

 Bulletin Trimestriel de la Soeiete Mycologique 

 de France with nineteen combinations rang- 

 ing from the simple to the complex. 



The incompleteness of many of the refer- 

 ences leads one to fear that many may be sec- 

 ond-hand, and that they were never verified. 

 The defects pointed out greatly impair the 

 usefulness of the bibliographies. 



A glossary of mycological terms precedes 

 the index. The value of such a feature can 

 not be disputed, but in this case clearness has 

 again been sacrificed to brevity and there are 

 too many instances in which only half the 

 truth has been told (e. g., stroma). Some ad- 

 jectives are defined like nouns (e. g., autoe- 

 cious, eytolitic), while a noun may be defined 

 as an adjective (e. g., endophyte). The ama- 

 teur who relies on this glossary will expect to 

 find catenulate spores " linked as in a chain." 

 or may be looking under leaves for parasites 

 that are designated as hypophyllous. 



The use of a single index, rather than sepa- 

 rate host and parasite indices is a commend- 

 able feature. 



In conclusion the writer must express his 

 surprise that any firm with the reputation of 

 the publishers would permit a book contain- 

 ing so many errors to pass through their 



