British Fungi, Hymenomycetes

Abstract

WE are glad to welcome this second volume so speedily after the first, although we fear that expedition has been secured by some sacrifice of efficiency. It is a misfortune when the reader is impressed at once with the feeling that a volume has been hurried out to meet certain exigencies. That feeling is by no means absent in scanning these pages. As soon as p. 165 is reached, and there is no longer Fries's “Monographia” to fall back upon, descriptions give place to diagnoses, notwithstanding the remarks in the preface, which would seem to regard diagnoses with something of contempt. From p. 166 to the end the student must be content with the diagnoses from Fries's “Hymenomycetes Europæ,” although there might have been collected together valuable notes from Fries's “Systema,” “Observationes,” and “Elenchus.” Nevertheless some advantage has been taken of the few descriptions published in the letterpress to Fries's “Icones.”

British Fungi, Hymenomycetes.

By Rev. John Stevenson. With Illustrations. Vol. II. Cortinarius—Dacrymyces. Pp. 336. 8vo. (Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons, 1886.)