March 20, 1903.] 



SCIENCE. 



473 



gantly drawn figures to be found in some of 

 our best works. We must not forget that 

 wood-cuts precede steel plates, tliat ' chromos ' 

 are antecedent to the appreciation of good oils 

 and water colors, and that gaudy adornment 

 is the forerunner of that finer and nicer orna- 

 mentation that prefers quietness of form and 

 color. 



All this is apropos of a book on the fungi 

 — really on the toadstools and mushrooms — 

 prepared by an enthusiastic amateur fungolo- 

 gist. Captain Charles Mcllvaine, with the title 

 ' One Thousand American Fungi.' We are 

 told that a score of years ago, while the au- 

 thor was living in the mountains of West 

 Virginia, he became interested in the lux- 

 uriant growths of fungi which he saw in his 

 rides through the dense forests. Beginning 

 with a gastronomic interest (which in fact 

 still dominates his work), he has widened his 

 field of interest so as to take in much of what 

 we are pleased to regard as scientific. Gradu- 

 ally the idea of preparing a book took form, 

 and the result is a large octavo volume of 

 more than seven hundred pages, and includ- 

 ing a couple of hundred illustrations, many 

 being colored plates or half-tone reproduc- 

 tions of excellent photographs. In order to 

 secure the information he desired in regard 

 to the edible qualities of fungi, he had person- 

 ally to test " hundreds of species about which 

 mycologists have either written nothing or 

 have followed one another in giving erroneous 

 information." He naively refers to the fre- 

 quent ' unpleasant results ' following such 

 personal tests, but in the end he felt repaid 

 by " the discovery of raany delicacies among 

 the more than seven hundred edible varieties " 

 which he found. Such work constitutes real 

 investigation. It is laboratory work of a spe- 

 cial kind, but while its purpose is the dis- 

 covery of gastronomic facts, they must be 

 included in the mass of knowledge and ex- 

 perience which we call science. While appeal- 

 ing primarily to the mycophagist, this book 

 will be found useful to the mycologist also. 



MAEINE LABORATORY BOTANY FOR 3903. 



The annual announcements for the season 

 of 1903 of three water-side laboratories are 



at hand. The first of these is that of the 

 Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Holl, 

 Mass. Here, as in former years, the botanical 

 work will be under the general direction of 

 Professor Bradley Moore Davis, of the Uni- 

 versity of Chicago. The work may be under 

 supervision or without supervision. Under 

 the former, courses are offered in morphology, 

 physiology, cytology, ecology, and the mor- 

 phology and taxonomy of the thallophytes. 

 For these, the usual fees are charged. In- 

 vestigators who wish to take up lines of work 

 without supervision may be accorded the priv- 

 ilege free of expense by making application 

 to Dr. Davis and complying with certain 

 requirements. The session begins July 1 and 

 ends August 12. 



The Minnesota Seaside Station, at Port 

 Eenfrew, on Vancouver's Island, will open 

 about the middle of July and close about the 

 first of September. As in former years, the 

 station is to be under the direction of Pro- 

 fessor Conway MacMillan, of the University 

 of Minnesota, Minneapolis. The party is to 

 leave Minneapolis via the Canadian Pacific 

 Eailway ' about July 15,' and return to Min- 

 neapolis 'about September 1, making two 

 stops, one at Glacier, the other at Laggan.' 

 " Classes in elementary and advanced botany 

 will be formed for high-school teachers and 

 undergraduate college students." Advanced 

 workers will find many problems awaiting 

 their independent investigation. 



The Ohio State University Lake Laboratory 

 will be open again at Sandusky, and, as here- 

 tofore, will include work in several lines of 

 botany. This year there are offered general 

 botany (the study of type forms, from the 

 lowest to the highest orders), ecology, sys- 

 tematic botany, and the morphology and 

 taxonomy of algse and fungi. As the work 

 is all under Professor Kellerman, this is a 

 sufficient guarantee of its high quality. In- 

 struction begins June 29 and closes August 

 7, but the laboratory does not close until 

 somewhat later in the summer. 



Charles E. Bessey. 



The Universitt of Nebraska. 



