Abstract
THE outstanding feature of this book is its price— one dollar ! For a large, well-bound volume of 274 thick leaded pages, with 128 plates containing hundreds of unusually good photographs of fungi, two of these plates being in most delicate colouring, a price of one dollar is literally startling. The book is published by direction of the Minister of Agriculture, Ottawa, and if this is a sample of his direction, one can only fervently wish more power to his elbow.' The volume is really an extended bulletin of the Division of Botany of the Dominion Experimental Farms, the senior author being the Dominion botanist. It contains simple but adequate descriptions of the common edible and poisonous fungi of Canada, and although it is far from complete, few if any of what may be regarded as the commonest fungi have been omitted. It is in no sense a ‘learned treatise,’ and the arrangement adopted might cause a strict systematist to wilt. For its avowed purpose, however, which is “to appeal to students as well as nature lovers, who wish to know the many odd or beautiful forms of fungous growth they may happen upon in their country rambles,” it is quite admirable. Four introductory chapters deal with the general structure of the fungi and useful practical hints to collectors. Following these are the illustrated descriptions of 160 species, and then brief but adequate accounts of the preparation and value of fungi as food, of poisoning by fungi, and of mushroom culture. A useful glossary and a good index complete the volume:
Mushrooms and Toadstools: an Account of the more common Edible and Poisonous Fungi of Canada.
By H. T. Güssow W. S. Odell. Pp. 274 (128 plates). (Ottawa: Division of Botany, Dominion Experimental Farms, 1927.) 1 dollar.
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B., W. Mushrooms and Toadstools: an Account of the more common Edible and Poisonous Fungi of Canada . Nature 121, 703–704 (1928). https://doi.org/10.1038/121703b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/121703b0
