490 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [MAY 
in the large series of unusually good and well reproduced photographic illustra- 
tions by which the descriptions are reinforced. Although only a small fraction 
of the fleshy fungi of Illinois are included, the more important are considered, 
and the bulletin accounts for 61 edible and 9 inedible species.—W. TRELEASE. 
Effect of copper sulphate.—JUNGELSON*? has examined the effect that 
sterilization of seeds with copper sulphate solutions may have upon the plants 
developing from them. He used Zea Mays and soaked the seeds in 1 or 2 per 
cent copper sulphate 1-24 hours. Both intact and more or less mutilated seeds 
were used to give different degrees of contact between the salt and parts of the 
embryo. The treatment weakened germination, modified the chlorophyll 
of the young plant, and delayed vegetative development and flowering. It 
caused the formation of several types of ears and grains not found in the checks. 
These effects increased with the concentration of the solution, the duration of 
treatment, and the degree of excoriation of the seed. The treatment with 
copper gave no precise change in the plant, but rather a tendency to great 
variation in one or several of many directions. This tendency to vary was 
transmitted to the second generation. JUNGELSON believes that the degenera- 
tion of some excellent strains of cereals may have been due to excessive use of 
copper sulphate or other fungicides applied to seeds. He sees in this also the 
possibility of the origin of certain monsters that breed true.—W™. CROCKER. 
Herbarium Amboinense.—A monument to American botanical activity 
in the Malay region is MERRILL’s “Interpretation of Rumphius’s Herbarium 
Amboinense,33 dedicated to the memory of CHARLES Bupp ROBINSON, JR., 
who lost his life in Amboina in 1913 while prosecuting studies toward its publi- 
cation. RuMputus, whose voluminous publication appeared about the middle 
of the eighteenth century, 50 years after his death, seems to have dealt primarily 
with the queer and the useful plants, and to have understood these and their 
relationships rather as the natives did than along the lines of modern taxonomy. 
Without its illustrations his-herbarium would have passed into the category 
of efforts scarcely capable of correlation with subsequent work; with these, 
it has and will continue to hold a prominent place among publications on the 
Malay flora.. The present “Interpretation” gives it a standing that should be 
lasting, provided care in the field, adequate linguistic preparation, scrupulous 
elity in weighing evidence, and an adherence to international rules of nomen- 
clature can insure such a result for the work of one who today stands foremost 
in his knowledge of the Malay flora—W. TREeLEase. 
32 JUNGELSON, A., Sur des epis anormaux de mais obtenus a la suite du traitement 
cuivrique de la semence. Rev. Gen. Bot. 29:244-248, 259-285. 1917. 
33 MERRILL, E. D., An eeay phn of Rumputus’s Herbarium Amboinense. 
pp. 595. Publ. no. 9. ‘Depart: Agric. and Natural Resources, Bureau of Science. 
Manila: Bureau of Printing. 1917. 
