NOTICES OF BOOKS. 
233 
popular account of the subject, which, it may be hoped, will draw further attention 
to this interesting department of inquiry. For example, there is a group of such 
fungi — the Lahoulbetiiacece — of the highest interest, some member of which may be 
expected to turn up any day in this country, and would constitute a find worth 
hunting for, and investigating rigorously when found. They are commonly re- 
garded as very lovv types of Ascomycetes, but there is a deal of uncertainty about 
that in the minds of most students of fungi. The most noticeable of the fungi 
that attack insects are other Ascomycetes, e.g., Cordyceps (with its conidial form 
Isan’a), forming generally club-shaped growths arising from the body of the victim. 
By the kindness of the publishers we are able to give an illustration of this genus — 
Cordyceps Gunnii, a Tasmanian species. Then there arc the Entomophthore<r, 
to which group belongs the fungus that attacks our common house-fly, and may 
be found on window panes often enough — and lastly the inevitable bacteria that 
cause the disastrous “ foul brood ” of bees. 
Mr. Cooke has arranged his mat- 
ter according to the hosts of the 
fungi, i.e., he takes together alt the 
fungi that attack Ilymenoptera, 
similarly those that prey upon 
Coleoptera, Lepidoptera, &c., which 
of course is useful to the entomo- 
logist. The student of fungi has an 
index to guide him to the places 
where he will find the items of his 
research. It is a pity that the 
author should have given currency 
to a very doubtful statement re- 
garding a possible connection of 
Empiisa mnsae (the house-fly fun- 
gus) with Saprolegnia ferax (the 
salmon disease fungus), which grows 
on dead flies in water, as well as 
many other things, such as fresh- 
water fishes, fish ova, earth worms, 
noses of frogs, pieces of bladder, 
and even manatees and whales, 
when kept in fresh water aquaria 1 
He says, “ it has long been known 
that when the house-fly, infested 
with Etnpiisa mnscce, falls, or is 
thrown into water, a more complex 
mould is developed, which really 
is identical with the salmon disease. 
This would seem to indicate that 
the Empiisa is a conidial form of 
the Saprolegnia, which view has 
been asserted even by mycologists, 
whilst we venture to doubt whether 
there is really any genetic relationship between them.” Mr. Cooke might well 
venture to doubt. It is, of course, not possible to prove a negative to this state- 
ment, but this idle assertion would be as tough a matter to establish. There 
is no ground for supposing anything of the sort, and it has never been established 
by any specimen that any Saprolegnia has even grown on any fly attacked by 
Empiisa. Notice of this has been taken at length, because it is a common error, 
and one likelv to give trouble at the outset to a beginner in the study. 
G. M. 
From Punch to Padan Aram, by Alfred T. Story (Elliot Stock, Svo, pp. 
233), is, as its name somewhat implies, a collection of essays on various subjects, 
many of them informed by a true Selbornian spirit, and therefore likely to be 
welcomed by our readers. Here is a new way of looking at the bird-wearing 
question, which we select in preference to adding any remarks of our own. The 
