Aquatic Phycomycetes: exclusive of the Saprolegniaceæ and Pythium

Abstract

THE lower fungi which inhabit fresh and salt water have been for a long time a neglected and mysterious assemblage of organisms, worked fitfully by some investigators, more intensively by others, but standing badly in need of a thorough investigation. Few of them are known to be of economic significance, many are supposed to be rare, most of them are tiny and demand very painstaking observation ; to mycologists in general these fungi have been things to be avoided. The lack of any comprehensive account in English, and of a modern survey in any other language, has deterred would-be investigators, who have recoiled from the unwelcome task of searching large numbers of scientific periodicals in a variety of languages, perhaps in the end to find imperfect descriptions difficult to understand.

Aquatic Phycomycetes: exclusive of the Saprolegniaceæ and Pythium

By Frederick K. Sparrow, Jr. (University of Michigan Studies, Scientific Series, Vol. 15.) Pp. xix + 785. (Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan Press; London: Oxford University Press, 1943.) 5 dollars.