NEWS AND NOTES 



Professor Bessey has recently estimated the number of species 

 of plants to be about 210,000, of which over 60,000 are fungi. 



Mr. L. H. Pennington, instructor at Northwestern University, 

 has been appointed assistant professor of botany at Syracuse 

 University. 



A practising physician in Switzerland recently treated a patient 

 who was badly poisoned by eating Clitocybe geotropa. 



Authors publishing new species in Mycologia are requested to 

 donate, if possible, specimens or fragments of these species to 

 the New York Botanical Garden. 



The mushroom market at Lausanne, Switzerland, opening May 

 1 and closing December 1, contained during the season of 1909 

 a total of 106 species, of which 15 were poisonous. 



An interesting polypore recently described by Schestunoff in 

 Hedwigia as Bresadolia caucasica, has been found by Magnus to 

 be only a monstrous form of Polyporus squamosus (Huds.) 

 Fries. 



Scleroderma Geaster, described and figured in the January 

 number of this journal for 1910, suddenly appeared in great 

 quantities last September on a lawn at Shelter Island, practically 

 covering the ground in many places and destroying most of 

 the grass. 



Chemical tests have been employed by the French mycologists 

 Maire and Potron in distinguishing certain species of Russula. 

 The pigment is dissolved in boiling water and the effect of acetic 

 acid on the colored solution noted (Bull. Soc. Myc. Fr. 26: 327). 



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