1915] CURRENT LITERATURE 159 
these salts for such fungi as Aspergillus and Penicillium, and in the case of zinc, 
for the lower algae also, is definitely shown by the literature. Boron and 
manganese compoun nds in lo ow concentration are stimulatory for higher plants; 
literature that it is stimulatory at any concentration. The contradictory 
results obtained by RicHarps and Loew and Sawa as respects the effects of 
manganese upon fungi are reviewed, but no opinion is expressed. 
The introductory chapter states that “a voluminous literature has arisen 
around the subject, and in the present discussion some selection has been made 
least as great familiarity with what is left out as with what is included. But 
it must be said that Miss BRENCHLEY has not this knowledge, and that the 
character and importance of the omitted literature is such as to make the book 
very far from ‘‘a succinct presentation of the ascertained facts.” For while 
the various chapters include discussions of the effects upon the fungi and the 
algae of the five elements under discussion, the citations made betray unfamil- 
iarity with the literature; not only do they fail to give any idea of the enormous 
extent of the work done in this field, but they are by no means those which. 
add most, either to the body of observed facts or to our present conceptions of 
the nature and effects of salt action upon lower forms. To cite important omis- 
sions would be to fill pages of this journal, and an example or two must suffice 
to illustrate a general situation. Thus, there is nowhere in the several sections 
dealing with change of form in algae and fungi when grown in salt solutions 
any mention of osmotic pressure as a significant factor; indeed the words do 
not occur in the book, and there is no reference to the work of KLEBs, LIvINc- 
STON, and the host of others who have furnished our present knowledge of this 
phase of the subject. Again, while the effects of copper sprays upon foliage, a 
subject which has long received particular attention at the hands of American 
physiologists and pathologists, is discussed to the extent of three pages, no 
American worker finds a place among the seven whose work is cited, and the 
most recent paper mentioned appeared in 1908. Such omissions would be 
surprising in any case; they become inexcusable when we recall that the 
very recent paper of PickERING and the DuKE oF BEpForD, certainly rea 
accessible to any English worker, not only furnished important results of 
work done at the Woburn Fruit Farms, but also admirably summarized the 
results of others up to the time of its publication. That the author reaches 
conclusions as to the effects of Bordeaux mixture upon assimilation and tran- 
spiration which are diametrically opposed to those of most recent workers, a 
for example REED and Ducoar, is therefore not surprising. All the sections 
‘ 
