,0 



1 



1890.] Botany. 675 



the quotation of the titles of works of reference and the names of 

 authors and publishers on pp. 235-6. We note further that Ustilago 

 is persistently spelled Ustillago. — Charles E. Bessey. 



The Completion of Saccardo's Sylloge Fungorum. — Eight 

 years ago the first volume of this great work appeared, and this has 

 been followed by others in rapid succession until now we have the 

 eighth and final volume of the series. In these thick volumes, which 

 aggregate more than eight thousand pages, nearly thirty-two thousand 

 species have been described (exactly, 31,927). The completion of so 

 great a labor in so brief a space of time must excite at once our wonder 

 and admiration. We have here a work of vast extent, whose first and 

 last volumes are near enough together in time, so that they are not ap- 

 preciably separated by any change in plan, due to a change of view on 

 the part of the authors. Whatever we may say of the plan of the 

 work, and however much we may wish that a different one had been 

 adopted, it is comfortable to know that here at least is a book comple- 

 ted upon the lines laid down by its author less than a decade ago. It 

 is cheerful, also, to think that a generation has not died during the 

 publication of the work, but that nearly all who saw its beginning have 

 seen its completion. Thus the depressing influence of De Candolle's 

 " Prodromus," dragging its way through fifty years to incompletion, is 

 counteracted, and we may again hope to see great undertakings inau- 

 gurated. 



If we take the great masses of families as worked in this book, and 

 make a distribution in an approximately natural system, we get a better 

 idea of the numbers and extent of the fungi. For convenience of ref- 

 erence the number of species in each family is given, and the total 

 number in each order or class. 



PROTOPHYTA. 



Myxomycete^e. — (Vol. VII.) — Monadinacese, 49 species; Soro- 

 phoracese, 9 ; Myxomycetaceae, 383. Total, 441 species. 

 Schizophyta. — Schizomycetacese, 659 species. (Vol. VIII.) 



ZYGOPHYTA. 



Conjugate. — Protomycetaceae, 19 ; Chytridiaceag, 132. (Vol. 

 VIII.) ; Entomophthoracese, 20 ; Mucoracese, 200. (Vol. VII.) ; 

 Total, 371 species. (Vol. VII.) 



OOPHYTA. 



CoeoeloblastejE. — Saprolegniacese, 80 ; Peronosporacese, 96. Total, 

 176 specie s. (Vol. VII.) 



