201 



estinr^ jircfacc is a history of the circumstances under which the 

 conception of such a work originated and developed. " Nortli 

 America " is construed in its widest sense, including the West 

 Indies, Bermuda, and the continent north of the Isthmus of 

 Panama. The species are arranged alphabetically, under their 

 respective genera and the citations of literature are disposed 

 chronologically under each. The literature lists impress one as 

 being very full, though any attempt to make them complete is 

 modestly disclaimed ; they have been compiled with the idea of 

 lightening the labor of the systematic mycologist and papers of 

 a purely technical or agricultural bearing and many of a physio- 

 logical character have been omitted. The Bacteria and Saccha- 

 romycetes are not included. 



In a work dealing so largely with plant names, the author's 

 views on the "scabrous subject" of nomenclature are of especial 

 interest and one is not disappointed in finding them tersely and 

 forcibly expressed in the preface, partly as follows : " At the 

 present day the Syllogc of Saccardo and the Pflanzenfaniilien of 

 Engler and Prantl may be said to be the two works on tJie clas- 

 sification of fungi in most general use, and we have preferred to 

 follow them as far as possible. * * * There are two categories 

 of botanists : those who believe that nomenclature is an end 

 rather than a means, to whom the changing of names to adapt 

 them to a uniform, automatic system, seems to be the important 

 aim in science ; and those who regard nomenclature as a neces- 

 sary evil which can be mitigated by making as few changes as 

 possible. Of these two categories, it is hardly necessar}' to say 

 that we should prefer to be classed with the latter. * * * It is 

 best not to make too violent attempts to interpret the older ni}'- 

 cologists but to be content with letting the dead bury their dead. 

 The business of reviving corpses has been carried altogether too 

 far in mycology." After perusing this conservative platform, one 

 is slightly shocked to find the author adopting Albugo of S. F. 

 Gra}', revived by Otto Kuntze and b}' Schroter, for the genus for 

 which the name Cystopiis \\-a6. become " classic " in both taxo- 

 nomic and morphological literature — a name which the next 

 InternatiDual l^otanical Congress, if the committee having the 



