64 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 
In 1881 Cooke had a serious attack of paralysis, which stopped 
his work for six months; in that year was published a popular 
résumé of Darwin's writings for the S.P.C.K. under the title 
Freaks and Marvels of Plant-Life. = the same year also appeared 
the first part of the work with which Cooke’s name will always be 
associated, the Illustrations of British Fungi. He had long 
cherished the idea of publishing such a work, and to this end had 
collected drawings of the rarer species from all the ae 
British mycologists. This is the largest and most complete book 
of its kind ever produced, containing 1200 coloured plates: 
it appeared in seventy-six parts, and occupied ten years in publica- 
tion. He was prepared to continue the work by including the 
whole of the Basidiomycetes, but sufficient —— to secure 
him against pecuniary loss were not forthcoming. 
During these years, although having ciel else to do, Cooke, 
in addition to writin opular books on Natural History, 
turned his attention to ae alge, but his three publications, 
British Freshwater Alga (1882-4), British sige (1887), and 
in 1891 as well as his large Handbook of Australian Fungi. In 
1892 he published a popular volume giving an excellent account 
of entomogenous fungi— Vegetable Wasps and Plant Worms. At 
the end of the year Cooke retired — Kew, having reached the 
1908. is remaining volumes are:—Handbook of British 
Hepatice (1895), which did not add to his reputation ; Introduc- 
tion to the Study of Fungi (1895), a book on si ines to his 
volume of 1872; and Fungoid Pests of Cultivated Plants (1906), 
an excellent account of plant diseases, whic eared as & 
series of _ s in the Journal of the Royal ap Cre Society. 
is last ates was a Catalogue and Fie of British 
as * Uncle Matt,” wrote shea on wild flowers for the young. 
No account of Cooke’s career can be considered — 
without some reference to his satigitien in on field. For 
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