INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1876. clxxix 



suggested, that they are simply conditions of species of Pyrenomy- 



cetes. 



VEGETABLE PATHOLOGY. 



In the Bulletin of the Bussey Institution are articles on the effects 

 of Fumago salicina on orange and lemon trees in California, on the 

 disease of grape-vines in America caused by Peronospora viticola, 

 and on the " black knot " of plum and cherry trees. Mr. Charles H. 

 Peck, in the Proceedings of the Albany Institute, has a paper on 

 diseases of the Black Si^ruce. The potato-rot fungus was the sub- 

 ject of a communication made by Professor De Bary, of Strasburg, 

 to the Royal Agricultural Society of Great Britain. He calls in 

 question the statements of Worthington G. Smith that he had dis- 

 covered the oospores of Peronospora infestans, the fungus causing 

 the rot, but thinks that the so-called oospores may belong to a new 

 species of Pythium, which he calls Pythium vexans. De Bary makes 

 Peronospora infestans the type of a new genus, which he calls Phy- 

 toplitliora. On the other hand, Mr. Smith replies by an article in 

 the Gardenefs Chronicle that he has watched the germination of the 

 oospores, and finds that they reproduce the Peronospora. The ques- 

 tion can hardly be settled satisfactorily until some competent per- 

 son shall confirm the views expressed by one side or the other. 



ALG^. 



In the Botanisclie Zeitung Cienkowski describes the palmelloid state 

 of a species of Stigeodonium. Reinke, in Pringsheim's JahrMicher, 

 and Rostafinsky describe the apical growth of the Fucacece, find- 

 ing that some genera, as Sargasswn^ have a single terminal cell, 

 while other genera, as Fucus, do not. Sachs, in Flora, has some 

 curious observations on the forms which zoospores assume in water, 

 which he ascribes to the mechanical action of currents rather than 

 to a vital movement. In the Beitrdge zur Biologie Cohn has some 

 remarks on the organization of zoospores. 



BACTERIA. 



Of the almost numberless articles on Bacteria which have appear- 

 ed during the year, those by Bastian are almost the only ones in 

 which the theory of spontaneous generation is still maintained. By 

 far the majority of writers believe that bacteria as well as all other 

 plants come from previously existing germs, and the object on the 

 part of the botanists has been to trace the development of some one 

 species. This has to a certain extent been done by Colin in an 

 article in the Beitrdge zur Biologie der Pflanzen, in which he gives an 

 account of the formation of spores of Bacillus subtilis. Cohn main- 

 tains that he has proved that the bacterial form which appears in 

 fluids which have been boiled is not Bacterium Termo, but always a 

 Bacillus, to which he gives the name of Bacillus svUilis. Bacterium 



