Notices of Books Received 



37 1 



a degree or diploma in agriculture and forestry in the universi- 

 ties and colleges. Mr. George Massee — who needs no 

 introduction — has most opportunely supplied the student with 

 exactly the book he wants. 



The contents are arranged under the three headings of; 

 (1) Morphology, Physiology, Biology, &c. ; (2) Pathology ; 

 {3) Classification. The chapter on biologic forms has been 

 contributed by Mr. E. S. Salmon. Through the courtesy of 

 the publishers we reproduce fig. 41, showing the life-history 

 of Cronartium ribicolum. There is no doubt that this text-book 

 will be as indispensable as the same author's well-known 

 " Text-Book of Plant Diseases." 



Mr. Massee admits the impossibility, in our present state of 

 knowledge, of giving a concise definition of this group of 

 plants, and remarks that negative characters perhaps convey 

 the clearest conception. " The absence of chlorophyll, and 

 consequent necessity for organic food, coupled with the 

 absence of true parenchymatous tissue, which is replaced by 

 more or less compacted strands of cells or hyphse, not organi- 

 cally joined laterally, constitute the most pronounced charac- 

 teristics. It is important to bear in mind that the two 

 features indicated must be in combination to constitute a 

 fungus, as both characters are not uncommon in other groups 

 of plants " (p. 238). 



The author remarks (p. 217) that " symbiosis between 

 fungi and flowering plants is not common, but a striking 

 instance is recorded by Freeman as existing between certain 

 fungi and three kinds of rye-grass respectively, Lolium temu- 

 lentum, L. perenne, and L. iialiaunu- In L. temulentum, or darnel, 

 the life-history of the fungus is briefly as follows : The 

 mycelium of the fungus is present in the seed ; on germina- 

 tion this mycelium also commences growth, and keeps pace 

 with the host plant, finally again entering the seed, where it 

 remains in a resting condition until the seed commences to 

 germinate, when the same cycle is repeated. A series of 

 experiments proved that infected plants were more vigorous 



