292 
THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 
Staffordshire. “ Pretty Whin ” is quite appropriate for Genista 
anglica , but is, we suspect, a misprint, of which there are too many, 
for the usual “ Petty Whin.” The numerous aliens and doubtful 
records are not differentiated typographically from the natural con¬ 
stituents of the Flora. The Club, of whose Transactions this is the 
57th volume, is to be congratulated on its prolonged and active 
existence. 
The University of Chicago has added to its useful Science Series 
an attractive little volume, The Story of the Maize Plant (1 dollar 
85, post paid). It claims to be “ the only complete modern exposi¬ 
tion of the morphology of the maize,” and so far as we can judge 
from an inspection of the book, the claim is justified. In a series of 
chapters, the author, Mr. Paul Weather wax, Assistant Professor of 
Botany at Indiana University, discusses the names and relationships, 
the history and geographical distribution, and the botanical origin 
of the plant; the structure, germination, anatomy, and physiology of 
the seed ; the functions of the leaf, the shoot, root, and inflorescence; 
pollination and fecundation ; heredity, breeding, ecology, and kin¬ 
dred subjects, with such practical matters as planting, tillage, and 
harvesting, products and uses; chapters on maize in aboriginal 
America and in American life bring the series to a close, save for an 
admirable bibliography and an excellent index. A word must be 
said for the text-illustrations—174 in number, with two coloured 
plates. We have seldom come across a volume in every way so well 
produced. 
The twenty-seventh annual meeting and autumn foray of the 
British Mycological Society was held at Windsor from September 28 
to October 3. Virginia Water, Windsor Park, Burnham Beeches, 
Brockhurst Woods, Stoke Common, and Black Park were worked and 
many rare fungi were gathered, including Coprimes picaceus , IIyd- 
num coralloides, H. erinaceum , Pleurotus pantoleucus , P. revo- 
lutus, Pluteus eximius , P. cervinus var. Bullii, Polyporus spumeus , 
and Pozites caper at a. Professor Darbishire took for his Presidential 
Address the general subject of Lichens. The old contrast between 
systematist and physiologist is now almost gone : the present need of 
systematic lichenology is that lichen groups, genera, or even species 
should be treated monographically. The relation between fungus 
and alga was considered and the evolution traced from the flat 
crustaceous but areolate type to the highest physiological type in 
Cladonia. Other papers were by Mr. F. T. Brooks on epidermic 
plant-diseases, emphasizing the delicate balance between host, para¬ 
site, and environment, and drawing a parallel between epidemic 
diseases in plants and man : and by Sir H. C. Hawley on the flora of 
a blackbird’s nest in August, which included fourteen species, ten of 
them Pyrenomycetes; Mr. Carleton Bea gave a talk on the more 
interesting fungi of the foray, and Mr. Bamsbottom described an 
unpublished monograph of Discomycetes by M. C. Cooke. Mr. Bams¬ 
bottom was elected President for 1924, and Miss Gr. Lister Vice- 
President. 
