2 APRIL 1887, Page 23

Elementary Teat-Book of British Fungi. By William Delisle Hay. (Swan

Sonnenachein and Co.)—It is ungracious, perhaps, to find fault with no carefully constracted a text-book-an this which Mr. Hay gives us ; still, we cannot help regretting that the illustrations are not coloured. We know how it adds to the expense; but at the same time, we feel that to be really useful to the general public, the various fungi should be given 218 mach as poasible in fac-simile, in the colours of life, of natural size where it is possible, and if not, on some scale to which they may be easily reduced. Or, to suggest a compromise, the rarer sorts might be than given. Apart from this considera- tion, Mr. Hay's text-book is a valuable and interesting con- tribution to practical botany. The number of these fungi is quite surprising to any one who has not studied the subject, and still more surprising is the great proportion that are not only edible, but excellent food. In the "Catalogue of Esculent British Fungi" there are two hundred and fourteen items. But this is not all. One genus alone numbers one hundred and sixty species, of which only eix of the important are named in the two hundred and fourteen. On the other hand, the catalogue of "Poisonous Fungi" does not contain more than fifty-two items, and from many of these the poison can be expelled by cooking. Besides his principal chapters, Mr. Hey gives Us tome carious information, as, e.g., about "mushrooms &di. aided to saints."