44 



through the influence of William Hamilton Gibson's popular 

 articles and illustrated work,* and the interest was increased by 

 the publication of the special edition of the report of the State 

 Botanist of New York for 1 894 f with numerous colored plates 

 of edible and poisonous fungi. It was thought that the fad would 

 soon die out, but, instead, the mycological clubs seem to be grow- 

 ing larger and the interest in their gatherings does not appear to 

 show any signs of abating. It was further hoped that this wide- 

 spread interest in this neglected group of plants would stimulate 

 some to take up a scientific study of the fleshy fungi, but while 

 a very few have made slight contributions, the many desiring 

 entertainment rather than severe study, have contented themselves 

 to remain mere mycophagists instead of taking mycology too 

 seriously. To appeal to this latter class of readers, four works 

 have recently appeared. That they all appeal to eye and stomach 

 as well as brain is evidenced by their profuse illustration, their 

 chapters on how to cook the delectable mushroom, as well as by 

 their assumption of scientific or pseudo-scientific diagnoses. 



Of these books, two may be quickly dismissed. The modest 

 little work of Misses Dallas and Burgin J purports mainly to give 

 the beginner in the study of the larger fungi the results of the 

 recent field experiences of its authors. The ponderous volume 

 by Mcllvaine §, while it will doubtless prove the most useful of 

 the entire series because of its covering a much wider range of 

 descriptions of species than any of the others and freely quotes 

 descriptive matter from original sources, is more or less uncertain 

 and unreliable because one is often left in doubt where the quota- 



* Gibson. Our edible Toadstools and Mushrooms and how to distinguish them. 

 8vo. New York, 1895. 



f Peck. Annual Report of the State Botanist for 1894. 4to. Albany, 1897. 



if Dallas & Burgin. Among the Mushrooms. 7-5 X 5 X °-875 in. Pp. xi 4- 

 175. With 11 full-page plates, two colored, the others half-tones. Weight 15 oz. 

 Drexel Biddle, Philadelphia. 1900. Price, $1.50. 



\ McIlvaink. One thousand American Fungi. How to select and cook the 

 Edible; how to distinguish and avoid the Poisonous. 11.25 X 8.25 X 3-5 i n - Pp- 

 xxxvii 4~ 7°4. Illustrated with 193 "plates" of which 128 are simple text figures, 

 thirty are full-page diagrams or half tones and thirty five are colored. Weight, 122.5 

 oz. — about that of a Winchester repeating rifle. Bowen-Merrill Co., Indianapolis. 

 1900. Price, $10.00. 



