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THE JOURNAL OF UOTANY 
of their occurrence. It is of exceptional value owing to the qualifica¬ 
tions of the author and the fact that very few works have as yet been 
written upon the subject ”—it is a refreshing experience to be able to 
quote with approval and endorsement a publisher’s “ puff.” 
The cultivation of tea within the British Empire began about the 
year 1836, and there are now more than a million acres in India and 
Ceylon devoted to it. The tea-bush is a very hardy plant, and hitherto 
has not suffered exceptionally from any disease ; in the present work 
some sixty diseases are enumerated. The first twenty-one pages are 
devoted to an elementary account of the classification of fungi. This, 
which is to be regarded as a “running glossary” is exceptionally 
clearly written and appears adequately to fulfil its purpose. (Inci¬ 
dentally it may be mentioned that the derivation of JEcidium, which 
is queried, is given by John Hill, the authority for the name, as 
follows :—“ We have called this genus, distinguished by its peculiar 
cells, JEcidium, from the Greek oilcidion, cellula.”) The remaining 
chapters deal with leaf diseases ; leaf and stem diseases ; stem diseases ; 
root diseases ; wound covers, sprays, and sprayers ; inycological notes ; 
and fungi on the tea-bush. The chapters on the leaf, stem, and root 
diseases respectively begin with accounts of how the bush is affected 
by interference with the physiological activities of these organs ; 
these are obviously written with the object of interesting practical 
men. The chapter devoted to leaf diseases contains most descriptions 
(though that on root diseases occupies more space): “The tea- 
planter is perhaps more alert to notice the occurrence of leaf diseases 
than is the grower of other plants, for the very obvious reason that 
the tea-bush is cultivated for the sake of its leaf. The leaf is the 
crop. Hence a leaf disease of tea not only affects the crop at some 
future date by its indirect effect on the bush, but, if it attacks the 
young leaf, immediately and directly reduces the amount of leaf 
which can be utilised for the manufacture of tea.” Chlorosis, double 
leaves, and dwarf leaves are mentioned under leaf diseases, and abnor¬ 
malities such as fasciation, galls, burrs, and abnormal callus out¬ 
growths under stem diseases. 
In describing the several diseases, the appearance of the affected 
part and the microscopic details of the fungus are given. Practical 
methods of dealing with the diseases are treated in full; this is perhaps 
best seen in the chapter on root diseases, which is full of wise saws 
and modern instances. The chapter on sprays is practical: “ The 
preparation of these spray fluids is no doubt a troublesome process, 
but it is within the capacity of the average dispenser. Attempts 
have been made to avoid all the trouble by manufacturing a paste 
which has merely to be mixed with water before using, and these 
have been successful, as far as temperate countries are concerned. 
But these pastes invariably decompose under tropical conditions, and 
up to the present no method of overcoming that appears to have 
been discovered.” It is probably to the two final chapters that the 
mycologist will first turn : that entitled Ideological Notes is a 
commentary on matters of systematic interest, whereas that on 
Fungi on the Tea-bush consists of classified descriptions of fungus 
parasites. Throughout the book are numerous points of inycological 
