51 



of organisms is of like interest to the professional botanist and 

 the amateur. Standing as they do on the border line between 

 animals and plants or as suggested by the author of the book, 

 perhaps outside the pale of either, they furnish a most fertile 

 field for the speculation of the student. Consisting, as they 

 do in their vegetative stage, of a naked mass of liquid protoplasm 

 which, unlike all other liquids, defies the laws of gravity and 

 persistently flows up hill instead of down, these organisms never 

 cease to arouse the interest of the nature student, provided their 

 eyes have been keen enough to detect them at all or someone 

 has directed their attention to them. 



Add to this the varied and fantastic shapes which are assumed 

 by the fruiting stage of the slime-moulds and which adorn the 

 ugly surface of rotting logs with minute feathers and cushions- 

 of the most delicate structures and beautiful colors and it is 

 difficult to select any group of either animals or plants which 

 can furnish a more fascinating subject for observation and study. 

 Only one other thing is necessary to make this work a great 

 success and that is the personality of the man behind the book 

 which while it may shine out through the printed page can 

 never be fully appreciated unless one, like the writer, has come 

 into personal contact with its author in the class room. 



In matters of nomenclature the author has not followed hard 

 and fast rules but has apparently attempted to use the oldest 

 recognizable specific names without regard to rule or date. As 

 to genera he has again followed usage rather than rule. He 

 has attempted to correlate the work of America and Europe so 

 that the species common to the two continents will appear under 

 the same names in the standard American and European works, 

 where the identity can be agreed upon. One other very com- 

 mendable feature of the book is the extensive notes and obser- 

 vations which supplement the technical descriptions. 



The illustrations consist of twenty-three plates as compared 

 with eighteen in the old edition. The plates are made in half 

 tone from photographs and drawings showing habitat sketches 

 and microscopic details. The drawings are very well done, the 

 sculpturing of the spores and capillitium being so well shown that 

 they cannot fail to arouse in the reader a desire to actually see 

 and know more of these wonderful organisms. No colored 

 illustrations are used. A copy of this book should be in the 

 hands not only of every botanist but also of every nature stu- 



