350 Reviews. [April, 



provement in Cinchona cultivation, introduced by M c lvor, was planting 

 the trees on fully-exposed open spots, and not under the shade of other 

 trees. The woods were cleared away in the first instance, and then 

 the Cinchonas were planted. The effect of exposure to the sun is the 

 production of Quinine in larger quantity, as might have been expected. 

 Mr. M c Ivor finds that the young branches supply a bark which yields 

 Quinine. He expects before the end of December, 1865, to forward 

 to Europe between 3,000 and 4,200 lbs. weight of Quinine bark, the 

 yield of 16,000 plants set at Neddiwuttum in September, October, and 

 November, 1862. Dr. De Vrij concludes by giving the following con- 

 trast between the Dutch and the English mode of cultivation : — "As 

 the Quinine trees in Java must, according to the present mode of 

 cultivation adopted in that island, be at least thirty years old before 

 they are fully capable of yielding a good quality of bark, I very 

 much doubt whether any capitalists would be found willing to employ 

 their capital in that way for so long a period, and I feel bound, there- 

 fore, to answer the question in the negative. The English system, on 

 the other hand, which admits of good interest on capital within four 

 years at the most, and which continues regularly progressing in that 

 respect, is certainly one which prepares the way for the transfer, in 

 due course of time, of the cultivation to private industry." 



MICEOSCOPIC FUNGI.* 



Mr. M. C. Cooke has produced a work on various Microscopic 

 Fungi, more especially those concerned in the production of diseases 

 in plants, which are known under the names of rust, smut, mildew, 

 and mould. These minute organisms are too often passed over as 

 objects of no interest or importance, and even by scientific men they 

 have been sadly neglected. The author remarks : — " Is it not a shame 

 that more than 2,000 species of plants should be known to exist, and 

 constitute a flora, in a nation amongst the foremost in civilization, and 

 yet be without a complete record? It is, nevertheless, true that 

 hundreds of minute organisms, exquisite in form, marvellous in 

 structure, mysterious in development, injurious to some, linked with 

 the existence of all, are known to flourish in Britain without a history 

 or description in the language of, or produced in, the country they in- 

 habit. It is also true that the descriptions by which they should bo 

 known, of hundreds more, lie buried in a floating literature where the 

 youthful and ardent student needs not only youth and ardour, but 

 leisure and perseverance unlimited, to unearth them." 



The whole number of species of Fungi described in the sixth 

 edition of ' Withering's Arrangement of British Plants,' published 

 in 1818, was 564. In the ' Index Fungorum Britannicorum,' recently 

 printed, there are enumerated 2,479 species. By far the greater num- 



* ' E ust. Smut, Mildew, and Mould : nn Introduction to the Study of Microscopic 

 Fungi.' By M. C. Cooke. 12mo. Hardwicke : London, 1865. 238 pp. 



