ILLUSTRATIONS OF BRITISH FUNGI. ~ 2538. 
The field is absolutely clear, for we take no note of foreign works 
which have no special regard to our own wang How far it worthily 
- the ground we shall presently se 
n no branch of Botany are figures reek indispensable than in 
the study of the higher fungi. The specific characters in many 
instances are of such a delicat ture and so exceedingly evane- 
scent that they defy all efforts to —- them in the ise peices 
descriptions of them, however precise the may be. 
Klotzsch’s method of preserving Agarics and Boleti, aoseetbed in 
the fifth volume of the ‘ English Flora,’ tas never been improved 
equardales or delicate silky fibrils, which no words can 
depict, and an overwhelmi pally case is made out in favour of figures. 
It is well, oe, fo the present race of mycologists, of whom 
the number i y increasing, that Dr. Cooke has come forward 
W. t 
astonishment we read in the Intro¢ duction ‘‘ that less than — 
its success, pest its very existence is consequently senestans 
upon foreign support”! We venture to say that a statement more 
oe oe to a people professing an admiration of science could 
be 
These four volumes contain 622 coloured lithograph plates, 
some of which have two, more rarely three, species or varieties on 
them; making a total of 757 species, rere of varieties. This 
is a larger number than is contained in the whole of the eee om 
works referred to above. The co ial co- ee of the m 
active British mycologists in sending specim wings has 
s and dra 
largely contributed to this result, which help the eatin honourably 
acknowledges. The initials of the Rev. M. ats . Berkele iP and 
daughter, Miss Ruth Berkeley, Mr. Broo , the late . Bull, 
win: 
