Review

The appearance of a monograph is always of great interest to the mycologist, as it gives him a survey of all the species of the group dealt with as well as various important data. Information on too many taxa is till scattered throughout the literature or they are lying undescribed in the herbaria and collections all over the world. The present monograph deals with the genera Monochaetia and Pestalotia, as mentioned in the title. After a short introduction, in which it is stated that the author spent nearly forty years on the compilation of this volume, there follows a chapter devoted to nomenclatural questions. It appears that Monochaetia (Sacc.) Allescher 1902 is not the oldest name since Seiridium Nees 1831 has priority. Therefore, Guba wants to conserve the name Monochaetia against the name Seiridium. The genus Pestalotia De Not. was dedicated by De Notaris to Fortunato Pestalozza, and thus this name was clearly a slip of the pen. Saccardo, who noted the error, changed the name into Pestalozzia. However, according to Guba this violates Article 72 of the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature. It is regrettable that such quibbling is allowed and that names of persons must be deformed to enforce the sacred rules. Surely it can hardly have been intended that the rules should be carried through