41 
HANDBOOK OF AUSTRALIAN FUNGI. 
We are able to announce that at length arrangements have been 
made with the several governments of Australia for the publica- 
tion of a Handbook of Australian Fungi, by M. C. Cooke, in one 
octavo volume, with coloured and plain plates, illustrating all the 
principal genera and subgenera, with the descriptions of the 
genera and species in English. It is anticipated that this work 
will be printed in a few months, having been already commenced. 
The material consists of the species published by Kalchbrenner in 
this Journal, the majority of which passed through the author’s 
hands at the time ; the species described by Berkeley and Broome, 
which again had been communicated, by one or other of the last 
named, at the time of publication, and a vast number of specimens, 
amounting to some thousands, which were from time to time com- 
municated by Baron F. von Mueller, F. M. Bailey, Mrs. Flora 
Martin, F. Readey, Dr. Berggren, and others in Australia. Besides 
the copies which will be despatched to the Colonies, a few will 
remain for sale in Europe at about forty shillings each. The 
plates will, as far as possible, represent Australian species, most of 
the fleshy kinds being transcripts of water-colour sketches made 
on the spot, and these will be executed in chromo-photography by 
the same hands as the plates of Cooke’s Illustrations of British 
Fungi. It is confidently expected that the entire work will be 
ready for publication about Midsummer, 1892, and will be issued 
under the sanction and authority of the Governments of New 
South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, and Tas- 
mania. 
BRITISH EDIBLE FUNGI.* 
For manifest reasons we cannot express any opinion on the 
book before us, although we may call attention to its contents. 
As no complete and satisfactory volume on British Edible Fungi 
has appeared since that by Dr. Badham, of which the first edition 
is dated 1847 and the second 1863, there need be no apology for 
filling up a vacancy. Attempts have been made in the interim, 
but, without being invidious, we may describe them as disappoint- 
ing. For some years our mycological friends have pressed us to 
issue such a book as the present, but the pressure did not avail 
until we had seen the last plate of our “ Illustrations,” and then 
we yielded, but with wbat success it is not our province to judge. 
The twelve coloured plates include figures of about 45 species, 
and the letter press of 240 pages is printed in clear and legible 
type, so that, even as books go, it is a cheap volume for three half- 
crowns. In all there are thirty-five chapters, and what is neces- 
* “British Edible Fangi, how to distinguish, and how to cook them,’ 
with coloured figures of upwards of forty species, by M. C. Cooke. One 
Vol., 8vo, cloth. Kegan, Paul, Trench, Trubner, and Co. 
