908 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST.. [VoL. XXXIII. 
different diseases which attack any particular plant are grouped 
together. The numerous illustrations are in general satisfactory. 
In some cases, as in that of PAyllactinia suffulta, they might be 
improved. The last hundred pages give the scientific descriptions 
of the fungi treated on previous pages. The Zext-Book is one which 
will prove valuable to the student of plant diseases, and to the spe- 
cialist it is important, since the diseases mentioned are not confined 
to those of Europe and North America, but include a large number 
of tropical diseases with regard to which the literature is scattered 
and often inaccessible. Whether the aim of the author, which, as 
stated in the preface, is to enable those directly occupied in the 
cultivation of plants, and with but a limited period of time available 
for study, to determine the nature of diseases caused by vegetable 
parasites, is likely to be accomplished seems to us doubtful. The 
general account of fungi, although good as far as it goes, does not 
give sufficient information as to the characters of the different orders 
of fungi and of their relation to each other to enable one who has 
not already some special knowledge of mycology to follow clearly 
the descriptions of the different diseases. The work, it seems to 
us, is adapted rather to those who already have some knowledge of 
systematic mycology, such as persons connected with agricultural 
schools and experiment stations, and for them the work is a valuable 
one. 
Hough’s American Woods.'— Part VIII of this unique series of 
sections of our native woody plants contains west American species 
of which, perhaps, the most unexpected are the castor bean, tree 
tobacco, mission cactus, and desert palm. The remainder of the 
species, however, are of more than usual interest, and one, the 
Christmas berry (Heteromeles arbutifolia), presents a graining of 
rare beauty. The descriptive text is preceded by useful flower, 
foliage, and fruit keys to all of the species thus far represented in the 
publication. 
Notes. — A considerable illustrated paper on the anatomy of Car- 
ludovica plicata is contributed by Henri Micheels to the current volume 
of the Mémoires of the Société Royale des Sciences de Liége. 
1 Hough, Romeyn B. Zhe American Woods, exhibited by actual specimens 
and with copious explanatory text. Pt. viii representing twenty-five species by 
twenty-five sets of sections. 8vo, viii + 66 pp. Cards of sections, 176-200. Low- 
ville, N. Y., 1899. 
