Nordic Journal of Botany

Review

Braun, U. 1995. The Powdery Mildews (Erysiphales) of Europe. Gustav Fischer Verlag, Jena. 337 pp, 132 figs, 19 00 27 cm. ISBN 3-334-60994-4. - Hard cover, DM 148, -.

In 1987 a world monograph of the powdery mildews (Erysiphales) was published by Uwe Braun (A monograph of the Erysiphales (powdery mildews). Beiheft zur Nova Hedwigia 89: 1-700). Now he has published a further book on the Erysiphales: The Powdery mildews (Erysiphales) of Europe.

This book covers the same aspects as the world monograph: Historical survey, morphological and anatomical features, distribution and host range, phylogeny and taxonomy, with keys to genera and species, but limited to the european taxa. For each species lists of synonyms, illustrations, literature and exsiccatae, description of macro- and microscopic characters, type material, general and european distribution plus host range are given. The comments on host range and distribution are more detailed than given in the world monograph - more lines of text are given to the single species. The last part of the book contains illustrations of all european taxa in the form of drawings of whole fruitbodies and important microscopic characters.

Seen with the eyes of a floristically interested mycologist the book is very useful and straightforward. It contains the information you need and it is easy to use. Following the key

to the genera, you have two possibilities to key out your species; either the strict way through the keys of the genera or through the semi-synoptic key based on the host. The hosts (families of plants) are listed alphabetically. The latter key will probably be the most used as it is very clear and as you get to know the genera, it is often very straightforward to get a species name. Even the anamorphic state (Oidium) is contained in this key.

The only nuisance to me is the layout of the species comments. The only emphasized text is the headings with the species name and original site of description. The rest of the text is too uniform and it can be difficult to point out for example the number of the plate or the distribution, especially when the text contains long list of e. g. hosts. I would have liked a little more use of bold headings and the number of the plate to figure just below the heading and not hidden away at the end of the description. As the illustrations are located at the end of the book, the general layout looks very dense and a bit boring. Just because it is a scientific book, it does not need to look as it is of no interest to others than scientists, especially as this book with elegant keys and very nice, plain illustrations will be of great value to all people interested in these small, delicate fungi.

For the price of 148 DM, you get a useful and solid book, which will be indispensable for mycologists, plant pathologists and others who are interested in the Erysiphales of Europe.

Christian Lange

0 NORDIC JOURNAL OF BOTANY

144 Nord. J. Bot. 16(2) 1996