Botany. 93 



accept the statement of Hennings' that the disease occurs in 

 Guatemala, but believes that the trouble in that country is due 

 to another cause. The disease known in Venezuela as Koleroga 

 is due to an imperfectly known sooty fungus, Pellicular ia Kole- 

 roga. There are several troublesome diseases of coffee known as 

 leaf-spots, due to attacks of Sphaerella coffeicola, Stilbumflavidum, 

 Cercospora coffeicola and Gloeosporium cofeatium. Other dis- 

 eases in Java and Liberia are supposed to be due to Pyrenomy- 

 cetous fungi, but their effect has not yet been studied in detail. 

 A chapter is devoted to the action of the leaf-lichens belonging 

 to the genus Strigula and the accompanying alga, Cephaleuros 

 virescens. The phaenogamic parasites of the genera Loranthus 

 and Clusia attack the coffee as well as other trees in the tropics, 

 causing damage, but cannot be said to cause special diseases. 

 The present volume is a very useful and convenient treatise 

 which will be especially valuable in tropical countries, since the 

 treatment as well as the origin of the various diseases is given in 

 a way rarely found in works treating of diseases beyond the 

 limits of Europe and North America. w. g. f. 



2. Monographic and Iconographie der Oedogoniaceen ./ by 

 Karl E. Hirn. Acta Soc. Sci.Fennicae, xxvii, No. 1, pp. iv, 394, 

 pi. 64. Helsingfors, 1900. — Our systematic knowledge of the 

 Oedogoniacae dates from Pringsheim's monograph in 1858, and 

 this was followed by Wittrock's Prodromus in 1874. To the 

 two genera Oedogonium and Bulbochaete treated by them a 

 third genus, Oedocladium, with a single species, was added by 

 Stahl in 1891. In the elaborate and thorough monograph of Dr. 

 Hirn no less than 199 species of Oedogonium and 43 species of 

 Bulbochaete are recognized besides the single species of Oedo- 

 cladium. This large number of species is not due to the fact that 

 Dr. Hirn is given to species making. On the contrary he is con- 

 servative in his treatment, and a comparatively small number of 

 new species have been described and many species have been 

 reduced to varieties. The monograph will be of great value to 

 American geologists, since our species were in a chaotic condi- 

 tion, and Dr. Hirn, who has received material from several 

 American sources, has been able to give us for the first time a 

 clear and. accurate account of our Oedogoniaceae. It is to be 

 regretted that of the numerous American species described in 

 Wolle's Fresh- Water Algae, so large a number cannot be recog- 

 nized with certainty at the present time. 0. pungens is an inter- 

 esting new species collected by Ravenel in South Carolina, and 

 0. geniculatum Hirn from California, described in Erythea, 1898, 

 is figured for the first time. To 0. Martinicense Hirn is referred 

 a form included by Wolle in 0. crassum, and an unnamed species 

 of Wood is referred with doubt to 0. Margaritiferum Nordstedt 

 and Hirn. Of the Wittrockian species not before recorded in 

 America may be mentioned O. Magnusii, 0. nobile and O. nodu- 

 losum. We should also mention that 0. acrosporum, 0. Boscii^ 

 0. crispum and O. Wblleanum, species much confused in Ameri- 

 can herbaria, are here clearly distinguished. An introduction, 



