A. HANDBOOK OF THE LAltGER BRITISH FUNGI 
223 
would-be students a good text-book, but this deficiency is now 
admirably supplied. The volume includes a description of all the 
British genera of Basidiomycete, accompanied by the late Worthing¬ 
ton G. Smith’s fine illustrations. 
In the introduction Mr. Bamsbottom gives a lucid and concise 
sketch of the leading characters that distinguish fungi from all other 
members of the vegetable kingdom and of the main groups into 
which these are divided. Incidentally he gives an exhaustive and 
up-to-date account of fairy rings, mycorrhiza, and poisonous and 
edible species. These illuminating summaries show how deeply the 
author is versed in the vast literature dealing with the subject. 
Amongst the fleshy Agarics, Boleti, Clavariye, and Puff-balls, the 
species enumerated are confined to those having edible or poisonous 
qualities ; the Handbook thus forms a complete guide to these plants, 
and its compact form will enable the student to refer to it in the 
field for their distinguishing characters. Mr. Bamsbottom deals very 
fully with the poisonous Amanita , describing the symptoms caused 
by their ingestion, the medical treatment of the same, and the causa¬ 
tive poison. With regard to this last he shows that in cases of 
poisoning by the destructive Amanita phalloides the blood-dissolving 
hemolysin phallin is not the cause of death, being dissolved by the 
action of cooking and broken up by the digestive juices, but the heat- 
resistant, non-digestible Amanita-toxin of Ford. Under Armillaria 
mellea the rhizomorphs and their destructive action as a parasite on 
almost every kind of tree are succinctly described ; the various rots 
of timber-trees are briefly referred to under the descriptions of Boly- 
porus Schweinitzii , P. squamosus , P. sulpliureus, P. bet-ulinns , 
Fames fomentarius, P. ulmarius , &c. The subject of Dry-rot and its 
control is set out very ably in the notes to Merulius lacrymans and 
Coniophora puteana. 
We presume Mr. Bamsbottom felt obliged to adopt the misleading 
names for the authors set out in W. G. Smith’s Synopsis of the 
British Basidiomycetes ; but we see no reason for his adopting the 
derivation of Merulius from merit la , a blackbird; Fries (Syst. 
Mvcol. i. 327) derives it from menus , pure—“ nomine ad Mor- 
chellas (meras- tute cibarias) denotandas veteres usi sunt, hue tians- 
tulit Haller.” 
A word should be added on the excellent way in which the book is 
produced, and the reasonable price at which it is published. 
a Carleton Bea. 
BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, etc. 
At the meeting of the Linnean Society on June 7, Prof. C. F. 
Moss spoke on the species and forms of Salicornia in South Africa, 
Mr. Bamsbottom exhibited specimens of the White TrutHe, Choiro- 
myces me a n dr for m is , from Chelmsford. Mr. Burtt-Davy read a 
paper on the geographical distribution of some Transvaal Leguminosse. 
As far as available data enable us to show, the Leguminoste form the 
largest family of Transvaal Spermatophyta as regards numbers of 
species, having about 100 species more than the Composite, and com¬ 
prising nearly 10 per cent, of the recorded species of the flora. The 
sub-family Papilionacese includes fifty-eight genera and -128 species; 
