Review

Author(s): William Louis Culberson

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 1972] REVIEWS 117

CHRISTIAN SOUCHON. Les Lichens. 124 pages. 15 figures. Presses Universitaires de

France, Paris. 1971. Price: 3.70 francs (= $0.75) (paperback).

WILLIAM TRAGER. Symbiosis. 100 pages. Illustrated. Van Nostrand Reinhold

Company, New York. 1970. Price: $3.95 (paperback).

It was perhaps inevitable that the old and venerated "Que sais-je?" collection of French

paperbacks would finally get around to the lichens. The number of titles published in that

series nears 1,500, and some of the most recent micromonographs consider puberty, Arabic

music, judo, blood transfusion, and Spinoza. Unfortunately the new little book on lichens isn't

very good. Much of the 124-page text is wasted repeating (rather inadequately) old descriptive

information covered for the French-language reader in des Abbayes' Traitd de Lichinologie of

20 years ago. The most interesting aspects of recent lichenology-the relationships of thallus

chemistry to systematics, geography, and ecology, the physiology of the symbionts studied either

together or separately, and the physiological ecology of the whole lichen in the field-are

scarcely mentioned or are dismissed in a few short, uninformative paragraphs. The fascinating

discoveries made in these fields are not so intrinsically difficult to understand that they need

be withheld from the educated general reader. It is a pity that this book isn't a bit better for

it is cheap and well printed.

Trager's Symbiosis is inexcusable. It appears in the "Selected Topics in Modern Biology"

series, but I cannot imagine what use could be made of it in college courses in biology. It is a

summary, in the casual style of an undergraduate term paper, of the author's random readings

and misconceptions about symbiosis. The very short text is light and unencumbered with factual

accuracy. This quotation is typical: "A lichen is a highly integrated organism . . . with

properties quite different from those of either its fungal or algal constituents, properties so

distinctive as to permit a taxonomic system for the lichens having no reference to either of

the constituent plants." The rest of the account of the lichens is made up of plainly wrong

statements (like the one quoted) or comments that are simply irrelevant to understanding

the lichen symbiosis.

In a hopelessly superficial discussion of the endosymbiotic theory of the origin of organelles,

Trager considers the notion that chloroplasts came from ancient algae to be only questionably

admissable and all but rules out a bacterial origin of mitochondria. He says, "Yeasts grown

under strictly anaerobic conditions and on a medium very low in fatty acids and sterols appear

to be devoid of mitochondria. Yet on exposure to air, mitochondria are rapidly formed. If this

is indeed a de novo formation from other membrane systems of the cell, this would be an

important argument against the origin of mitochondria from symbionts." But Plattner and his

colleagues have already shown experimentally (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 66: 1252-1259. 1970,

with references to earlier papers) that such anaerobically grown yeast cells actually have

incomplete "promitochondria" not seen by usual EM examination because of staining dif-

ficulties. Upon exposure to air these yeasts produce normal mitochondria from the "pro-

mitochondria," and offer no exception to the concept that cell organelles arise from preexisting

organelles. If an endosymbiotic origin of mitochondria from ancient bacteria is to be dismissed,

other reasons must be found.-WILLIAM Louis CULBERSON, Department of Botany, Duke

University, Durham, North Carolina 27706.

G. C. AINSWORTH. Ainsworth 8c Bisby's Dictionary of the Fungi. Sixth edition.

663 pages. 16 plates. Commonwealth Mycological Institute, Kew. 1971. Price: ?5.00

(= $13.00) (cloth).

In its new and sixth edition the Dictionary of the Fungi remains the source of more general

taxonomic information on the organisms that it treats than any other reference work of its size.

Willis's Dictionary of the Flowering Plants and Ferns was the model upon which the first

(1943) edition of this book was based and to which the last edition is still faithful in that it

lists and disposes of all generic names that have been proposed for fungi. Additionally, the

rich terminology of mycology is glossed, and major entries treat such general subjects as clas-

sification, nomenclature, sex, geographical distribution, mycorrhiza, antibiotics, industrial

mycology, and many others. Thumbnail sketches identify the mycological luminaries of the

past, and 16 plates illustrate morphological and anatomical details.

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 118 THE BRYOLOGIST [Volume 75

The sixth edition of the Dictionary is more than one hundred pages longer than the fifth

of ten years ago. Much of the increased size results from the first-time incorporation of

lichenology. This modification is long overdue, for the lichen-forming fungi comprise more

than half of the Ascomycetes, the largest group of the fungi. P. W. James and D. L. Hawks-

worth contributed the information on the lichens, and their massive effort is appropriately

acknowledged on the title page.

Although Ainsworth has apparently always seen the list of generic names to be the major

contribution of the Dictionary, the definitions of terminology and the extended subject entries,

especially those on classification, doubtless more often send mycologists looking for this book.

The overall classification adopted in the new edition is quite modern. In the entry under "Fungi,"

a timid discussion of a multiple-kingdom (vs. the traditional two-kingdom) classification of life

finally (and admirably) refers the organisms in question to Kingdom Fungi, not Plantae as the

former edition did. A diagram of Whittaker's five-kingdom system is included, and in rec-

ognizing the distinctness of fungi from plants the author observes, perhaps more hopefully

than expectantly, that "this should cause little inconvenience to traditionalists." The classifica-

tion is further improved by discarding the Phycomycetes in favor of the Mastigomycotina and

the Zygomycotina and in treating former classes (Ascomycetes, etc.) as subdivisions.

But the rub comes with the lichen-forming fungi. These are included in the book because

they are fungi, but they are excluded from all the classifications because they make lichens!

The main entry for these organisms is even under the old Latin class name Lichenes. In its

separate entry, each lichen genus is identified as belonging to Class Lichenes instead of to

order (Sphaeriales, Hysteriales, etc.) as is done for the nonlichen fungi. (The Lecanorales, the

largest order of lichen fungi, doesn't even get an entry in the Dictionary at all!) Of course

it is pointed out that the Lichenes are not a natural group, but the name is consistently used

in its taxonomic sense of a century ago and that alone should placate any traditionalist ruffled

by Kingdom Fungi.

Although this is the sixth edition for the nonlichenological mycology, it is the first for

lichenology as many errors attest. Most of these are the innocuous slips inevitable in any

large-scale reference work. For example, a paper by Egan on the flora of New Mexico is

cataloged under (Old) Mexico; Tuckerman is said to have been a professor at Harvard instead

of at Amherst; Pseudevernia cladonia is used to exemplify the "Atlantic coast" distribution

pattern in North America, but this species is restricted to the Appalachian Mountains; and

lichenometry is claimed to be "used extensively by glaciologists," which should astound nobody

more than the latter. In this country lichenologists will read with dismay the categoric state-

ment-under "Phytosociology of lichens"-that "lichen communities are given Latinized names

and classified by one of two hierarchial systems," Du Rietz's or Braun-Blanquet's, for American

research in this area has alway cautiously avoided both of these typological traps. But the

worst slips come under "Lichenes." We read, "While the phycobionts [algae] are not directly

involved in the outward shape of most lichens, each one exerts an important influence which

controls and modifies the behaviour of the associated mycobiont [fungus] inducing it, not only

to assume a characteristic shape and anatomy, but also to produce ascocarps." Quite aside

from the fact that this statement flatly contradicts itself, all that it claims (after the first

clause) is either without factual basis or is in direct opposition to the evidence. The assertion

that "fruticose forms represent the highest development in lichens" seems gratuitous. Are we

being told that Coenogonium, Polychidium, and the Roccellaceae are among the most highly

evolved of the lichen-forming fungi? "The majority of lichens are very slow-growing [but]

long-lived (to 4,000 years)"-a misleading association of the point in time when a given colony

was initiated to the actual age of the living organism that one sees there today, a context in

which "age" has no meaning for the individual. Pycnidia, demonstrable in thousands of species,

are said to occur in "a number of species" and to "germinate in culture"-the latter an assertion

not seen in the primary literature to my knowledge since the nineteenth century and most

highly suspect. It is unclear why a sexual role for the pycnidia is seen in this book to be so

generally improbable. Although admittedly the sexual process has not been followed in full

cytological detail, the absence in lichen fungi of antheridia and a nearly consistent presence

instead of pycnidia, and the high coincidence in individuals of pycnidia and spore-producing

apothecia, the ultimate product of dikaryotization, offer a most important set of circumstantial

evidence-a central point not alluded to in this book.

As a whole the Dictionary will continue to be used and respected for its clear merits, and

the present version will surely not be surpassed until the next edition appears. It says most

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 1972] REVIEWS 119

for this book that one cannot leaf its pages without refreshing one's own knowledge of theoretical

mycology (say, through the beautifully tabulated comparisons of various modern classification

systems of the major fungal groups) or without finding a touch of humor (crottle is a "Scottish

term for many lichens (obsol.)"). For years the Dictionary has been a standard item on the

reference shelf, and now, with the inclusion of lichenology, it is in its own way at last unequivo-

cally comprehensive.-WILLIAM Louis CULBERSON, Department of Botany, Duke University,

Durham, North Carolina 27706.

B. M. MOELIONO. Cauline or Carpellary Placentation among Dicotyledons. Vol.

I, [viii] + 292 pages; Vol. II, 92 pages of figures ("Plates"). Royal VanGorcum Ltd.,

Assen. 1970. Price: Hfl 83.00 (= about us $23.00) (cloth).

The subtitle of this work is, "Axis-borne versus leaf-borne ovules." These two volumes,

text and atlas, cover only the "cauline" or "axis-borne" types, exemplified by the Centrospermae

in the view of the author. Essentially this is a detailed developmental study of the gynoecium

in four genera (8 species) of the Caryophyllaceae. The structure of the ovary of these members

has long puzzled morphologists, who have debated whether the central column is cauline or

carpellary. Moeliono is the first to use histogenesis so extensively as a source of evidence.

The major developmental features he emphasizes include the persistence of an active floral

apical meristem after the carpels are initiated. Ovules are then initiated from the apical meristem

much like other lateral primordia, from the flanks. The congenitally fused carpel walls grow

upward around the central column and its attached ovules, but remain open apically for a

time, allowing the observer to see the ovules developing within. Another significant feature

is the ovary septa initiating from the adaxial wall of the carpels, and growing inward and

upward, and eventually fusing with the central column. At maturity the source of the septa

is obscured; in some genera the septa are ephemeral and break down before the fruit ripens,

so that developmental stages are essential to understand relationships.

The author stresses the fact that in some Caryophyllaceae (Silene, Lychnis) the gynoecium

has two different kinds of placentation: axile in the "inferior placentae" and parietal (or

pseudoparietal) in the "superior placentae." The ovules in these two situations lie on different

radii, and are vascularized differently. The uppermost ovules are supplied by a central "axial"

vascular system, and the lower ovules by a peripheral system. On the bases of differing vascula-

ture and differing initiation pattern for various gynoecial elements, Moeliono concludes that

the Caryophyllacous gynoecium is "dual" in nature, made up of sterile "phyllomes" or carpel

walls, and a fertile "cauline" portion, the central column bearing ovules. He restricts this con-

clusion to the plants under investigation in the Centrospermnae. He suggests that angiosperms

are probably polyphyletic, and hence morphologists cannot validly compare structures in families

only remotely related; homologies, he believes, are only valid among closely related organisms.

In a number of additional chapters, Moeliono compares caryophyllaceous floral development

and structure with those of 12 other centrospermous families which he has investigated super-

ficially. These observations allow a basis for discussing a wide range of topics: the inferior

ovary, terminality of solitary ovules and solitary carpels, inverted vascular bundles, the chronol-

ogy of vascularization of flowers and fruits, and numerous theories of organ and floral homology.

Perhaps the most useful and interesting part of this work is the exhaustive bibliography and

lengthy discussions of other papers on floral structure. The author tends to carry his helpful

criticism too far at times, pointing out non-median sections in many papers, "erroneous" con-

clusions in many others. Few morphologists, living or dead, escape comment. Those unfortunate

enough to fall within either the "classical theory" camp or the "typological" camp are considered

to be too biased to be able to make any valid conclusions from their observations. Moeliono

suggests that one author may have arrived at erroneous conclusions because he had for study

only the sections illustrated. This is patently absurd; except for Moeliono's current publication,

and perhaps those of Melville, it is unlikely that any morphologist has ever pictured in a

publication even a small fraction of the material he has examined. Few authors have the luxury

of 92 pages of figures, 292 pages of text, and a lenient editor.

Technically, the text contains frequent spelling errors, including one in a chapter head (p.

159). An index is badly needed to locate mentions of authors, theories, topics, and genera of

interest.

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