The Scottish Naturalist. 



143 



EEVIEW. 



A MONOGRAPH OF THE BRITISH UREDINEiE AND 

 U STILAGINE^E. 



By Charles B. Plowright, F.L.S., M.R.C.S., &c. 1889. 



To British mycologists the two groups that form the subject of this Monograph 

 have been attractive because of the most interesting and important relations 

 that they bear to the plants on which they are parasitic, as well as because of 

 the beauty of many of them, and of the strange phenomena presented in their 

 reproduction. But while so inherently attractive, and though great progress 

 had been made in tracing the cyclic reproduction of these fungi, there was no 

 work in the English language that could be looked on as presenting the sub- 

 ject in its most modern aspect ; and the British lists were heavily loaded with 

 numerous so-called species, known to be only conditions of forms distributed 

 in other "genera." 



No one who had struggled in the intricacies of such "genera " as Lecythea, 

 Trichobasis, Uredo, and the like, could doubt the need of a thorough revision 

 of these groups of fungi, and no one could be more fit to perform this task, or 

 rather labour of love, than is Mr. Plowright, from his familiarity alike with 

 experimental researches into the life histories of a large proportion of the 

 British species, and with the now very considerable literature of the groups. 

 The high expectations formed regarding the new work announced as under- 

 taken by Mr. Plowright have not been, and will not be, disappointed; and 

 the greatest obstacle to the wider diffusion of a knowledge of these curious 

 fungi among British mycologists has now been overcome. 



Mr. Plowright's investigations into the life-histories of these fungi are well 

 known to all that have given any attention to the subject, and it is also well 

 known that he is a firm supporter of the belief in hetercecism among the 

 Ureclinece, a belief strongly supported by his own researches. With this belief 

 some will doubtless disagree ; but all alike must recognise the great value to 

 every student of such a Monograph as this, so thoroughly abreast of the 

 most recent investigations. 



An excellent discussion of the structure of the mycelium and of the various 

 methods of reproduction that occur in the fungi A of both groups occupies the 

 first 98 pages of the volume. Hetercecism is fully treated, on the basis of the 

 laborious researches of the author himself, and a list of the species in which 

 it is believed that the cycle has been followed out is given on pages 56 and 57, 

 the observer who first investigated the cycle being named under each species, 

 and also the year when each result was published. 



There is a chapter on the infection of the host-plants by the Ustilaginece, 

 another on the methods of spore-culture, and a third on the artificial infection 

 of the host-plants. All these chapters are worthy of very careful perusal ; and 

 will be found a most valuable guide to those desirous of understanding the 

 problems met with in studying the biology of these fungi. 



The systematic descriptions are very complete. Each species has the full 

 synonymy; and under "biology" particulars are given of the experimental 

 culture of many of the individual species, and of the effects produced by them 

 on the host-plants. 



