A Text-book of Mycology and Plant Pathology

Abstract

THIS text-book cannot fail to give much valuable information to the rapidly increasing number of students of plant diseases. Part i. deals with mycology in a general sense, comprising classification, morphology, histology, physiology, bio-chemistry, ecology, and phylogeny. In part ii. general plant pathology is dealt with; the predisposing and determining factors of disease and the botanical phenomena accompanying pathologic plant growth are discussed in detail. A very useful chapter, well illustrated and full of practical details, is given on “Practical Tree Surgery.” Part iii. is entitled “Special Plant Pathology,”and comprises a list of the common diseases of economic plants in the United States and Canada, followed by a detailed account of about 100 parasitic and non-parasitic diseases, which have been selected either because of the economic importance of the disease over wide geographical areas, or because their study helps the student to connect up the practical and the systematic parts of the book. Some very interesting information from various bulletins of the United States agricultural experiment stations is given in this section. It would have been well if the author had made room for a full account of the wart-disease of the potato (Synchytrium endobioticum), in view of the fact that it is the most destructive disease of the potato known, and that while the United States are believed to be still free, an alarming outbreak occurred in Canada in 1912. An account of the methods employed against this disease by the agricultural authorities in this country for the past ten years would have formed an excellent object-lesson for the student of the disastrous results that follow from the neglect of scientific measures in dealing with the early outbreaks of a new fungous pest.

A Text-book of Mycology and Plant Pathology.

By Prof. J. W. Harshberger. Pp. xiii + 779. (London: J. and A. Churchill, 1918.) Price 15s. net.