BOOK REVIEWS. 



719 



was that of Dr. Cooke, with a very similar title. In the meanwhile 

 Plowright's Uredineae and Ustilagineae appeared about twenty years 

 ago, and Salmon's excellent monograph of the mildews more recently 

 still, while Massee's British Fungi contained descriptions of the " false 

 mildews " and smuts. The first and last are out of print and out of 

 date, while the other was published in America and is perhaps not 

 easily obtained. It was a happy thought of the authors to bring 

 together the descriptions of these fungi, for they are without exception 

 parasites, many of them of great importance, and it was also a happy 

 thought to include descriptions of allied species which are known 

 to attack plants much cultivated or wild in Britain, but which have 

 not yet reached these shores, or at least have not made their presence 

 felt. In this, not being a book dealing with the economic aspect of 

 the fungus attacks to any extent, the question of appropriate remedies 

 is not touched upon. 



The book is clearly printed on nice paper, not too heavy for com- 

 fortable use, and will be of great assistance to those who are attracted 

 to the microscopic study of the minute parasites that are so abundant, 

 both on cultivated and wild plants. 



It is to be hoped that, ere long, someone with the necessary know- 

 ledge, and with time to gather together and arrange his material, will 

 give us descriptions in English of the minute fungi of other groups 

 than those dealt with in these pages, and so assist and stimulate the 

 study of forms very much neglected in this country at the present 

 day. No such task has been attempted here for half a century, while 

 Germany and other countries have capital fungus floras. 



We have nothing but praise for the general plan and arrangement 

 of the book, but when we come to look into the details we feel that 

 some criticism is called for. It is very difficult to avoid all errors in 

 spelling of botanical names, but surely it might have been possible 

 to avoid some of the errors in the book under review — they are 

 so very numerous. Opening the book at random we find, e.g., p. 99, 

 epidermic for epidemic, Puccinia cichoria for P. Cichorii, consticted 

 for constricted ; p. 100, Cichoria for Cichorium, Caeoma seoavlens 

 for Caeoma suaveolens, Cirsium arvensis for C. arvense. It may be re- 

 marked, too, that the authors have entirely ignored the rules of capi- 

 talization as agreed at the Botanical Congress of Vienna, by omitting 

 capitals from specific names altogether. Another curious thing 

 which comes to light on a closer inspection of the book is the number 

 of omissions. One Uromyces, for instance, described in the first 

 place by one of the authors, is not even mentioned — U. Colchici — and 

 several other species are overlooked entirely. In the same way, in 

 many cases the lists of hosts are curiously incomplete. Ustilago 

 violacea, for instance, is, in addition to the long list of hosts mentioned, 

 not infrequent on the carnation, spoiling the appearance of the 

 flowers by its violet spores; while, besides attacking Scilla bifolia 

 and Gagea lutea, Chionodoxas often fall victims to U. Vaillantii. 

 One genus of rusts is omitted entirely. The distribution of most of the 



