LICHENS AND FUNGI

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32975, 22 July 1972, Page 10

LICHENS AND FUNGI

(Reviewed by P.M.J.) New Zealand Lichens. By William Martin and John Child. A. H. and A. W. Reed. 193 pp. Beginners Guide to Fungi. By C. L. Duddington. Pelham Books. 176 pp. It is pleasurable to find the dustcover blurb to be a fitting appraisal of the book within. So it is with both these books. Martin and Child set out to give an introductory account of the New

Zealand Lichens, mentioning 300 of the 1400 or so species known so far. The first few chapters are introductory giving some basic data on their history of discovery in New Zealand, growth and reproduction, structure, collection and associated techniques. The major part of the book is a guide to their identification, and the interested layman or student will find the definition and usage of the many words peculiar to lichen studies easy to follow. So also are the keys, the aids to identification, in some of which some professionals may notice the small differences in layout. Forty six genera Which include the larger* more common or aesthetically striking species may be identified using these keys and each genus may have a key to some or all of its species. Also many biological notes on the habitat, form, colour, and many other features of the 300 species are included. The drawings of various characters of lichens are rather rough but the many photos, both monochrome and colour, are of a high standard. Over-all, this book is a welcome and useful addition to the handbooks on the New Zealand flora. The “Beginners Guide to Fungi” is written by a professionally well-known worker in this group. It is a lucid account of the structure and biology of not only the easily recognised mushrooms, toadstools and puffballs but also of bracket, club, skin, and jelly fungi, and the rusts, smuts, mildews, moulds, and yeasts. It gives the natural history and commercial uses of fungi in great detail. Data such as a bracket fungus giving of 30,000 million spores per day; the increase in dry rot immediately after the Second World War and the production of soft-centred chocolate creams by incorporating yeast products are extreme examples of the wealth of information. There are no aids to identifying various fungi as this is a highly technical, often time-consuming job, yet a person once having read and understood this book could no longer be called a beginner.