Richard T. Hanlin, 1990

This soft-cover book with spiral wire binding is an illustrated key to 100 genera of ascomycete fungi. The text was generated camera-ready and apparently as 300 dpi laser-printer output: thus it has a somewhat utilitarian look to it. In contrast, the line drawings (all original) that accompany each genus are very well produced and occupy over 100 pages that are conveniently interleaved with the text. Perithecia (or apothecia as appropriate), asci, and ascospores are illustrated for a representative species of each genus. Very fine details of spore wall morphology are not always evident from the line drawings but coarser details (such as striation, reticulation, etc.) are clearly presented, as are the varied and often intriguing shapes of multiseptate ascospores. The morphological attributes of each genus are described together with notes on habitat and selected references to the literature. About a dozen plates of light photo-micrographs are given for selected genera. This well-illustrated book will be useful to palaeopalynomicologists (oops! - new word) and is worth having along side the very comprehensive identification handbooks of Ellis and Ellis (1985 and 1988).

References

Ellis, M. B., and J. P. Ellis, 1985. Microfungi on land plants: an identification handbook. Croom Helm (London and Sidney), 818 pp. [Reprinted 1987; contains over 2000 original line drawings of microfungi].

Ellis, M. B., and J. P. Ellis, 1988. Microfungi on miscellaneous substrates: an identification handbook. Croom Helm (London and Sidney), 244 pp. [Contains over 500 original line drawings of microfungi].

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*Present address: Godwin Institute for Quaternary Research, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, Downing Place, Cambridge, CB2 3EN, England, UK. E-mail: mh300@cam.ac.uk