HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



ground edged slides acting as the guides to the 



razor 



With one constructed in this way, I have procured 

 sections finer than I have got with any other non- 

 freezing machine. 



I have one further limit to add. In cementing on 

 the two glass slides, take care that, if not quite 

 horizontal, they may tend to form a V, rather than 

 an A with each other, as should the inner edges be 

 the least higher than the outer, the razor will be 

 very quickly blunted, whereas, on account of the 

 razor edge being, as a rule, somewhat curved, the 

 circumstance of the outer edges being a little high is 

 of no moment. Also do not be tempted to make 

 your well of large diameter ; \ inch is quite as large a 

 section as one is likely to want, and the smaller the 

 diameter of the well, the more even will the sections be. 



Of course a brass tube and plunger may be made 



form sori, seated on scarcely perceptible spots, on the 

 underside of the leaves (only rarely on the upper 

 side) ; the sori were scattered, or irregularly grouped, 

 occasionally in orbicular clusters, round or oval, 

 averaging 300 /j. in diameter, convex and elevated. 

 The epidermis persisted round the sori, forming a 

 somewhat dome-shaped investment, ruptured at the 

 summit, where it was pale in colour, but below dark- 

 brown, owing to the paraphyses showing through. 

 These paraphyses, which formed the most striking 

 feature, were arranged in a single ring, surrounding 

 the sorus, just within the persistent epidermis ; they 

 were dark-brown, shining, oblong-cylindrical, en- 

 larged at the apex (club-shaped), inclining inwards 

 towards the centre, from 80-100 fi long or more, and 

 about 12-15 <"■ thick. (Figs. 6 & 7.) 



Within these were the uredo-spores, oval, obovate, 

 oblong, or roundish in shape, surrounded by a very 



.Fig. 6. — Sorus, emptied of spores, showing the paraphyses. X 80. 



'I ' W\ \ U 



f Ji 



Fig. 7. — Paraphyses. X 250. 



Fig. S. — Puccinia So'ichi. a, Uredospores ; b, transition to 



mesospores ; c, mesospores ; d, teleutospore (,:). 



X 250. 



■use of, if desired ; but, somehow, I never got one to 

 act as well as my old " sixpenny squirt." Though I 

 •made many of them, one time and another, either 

 for friends, or in the hope of improving the machine. 

 G. M. Giles, M.B., F.R.C.S. 

 Peshaivar. Surgeon Ind. Medical Service. 



A NEW BRITISH PUCCINIA. 



IN October la it, Mr. II. Ffawkes sent me, from 

 near Birmingham, a fungus upon the leaves of 

 Sonchus, which had the appearance of a Puccinia, 

 but in which he could find none of the characteristic 

 two-celled spores. A careful examination convinced 

 me that I had, in all probability, the uredo-stage of a 

 Puccinia hitherto, I believe, unrecorded in Britain, 

 viz : Puccinia sonc/ii, Desmaz. First, to describe 

 the fungus in question :— It occurred in small puncti- 



thick, colourless, warted membrane (Fig. S, a) ; 

 contents very pale yellow, with a few oily drops ; 

 30-50 n long, and 20-24 M broad. No other spores 

 than these could be seen in situ ; but, on scraping off a 

 few sori, asmall number of meso-spores were observed, 

 which differed in being of a darker brownish colour, 

 and less or not at all warted surface ; the transition 

 from the uredo-spores to the meso-spores could be 

 clearly traced. (Fig. 8, b and c.) A persistent search 

 revealed a few teleuto-spores, which were oval, not 

 constricted, smooth, and dark-brown ; but so small 

 was the number that I incline to the opinion that 

 these were accidental intruders, and did not belong 

 to the same species. They might have been blown 

 on to the leaf from some neighbouring plant infested 

 with a Puccinia. (Fig. S, d.) 



The plants on which this fungus was found were 

 two small seedlings, not in flower, growing on rubbish 

 which had been thrown out of the canal in cleaning it ; 



