7 6 



HA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSS I P. 



German Language (same publishers), by H. A. 

 Strong, LL.D., and K. Meyer, Ph.D. Both the 

 authors are connected with Liverpool University 

 College. They have written the book to supply a 

 want often felt by professional teachers, to whom it 

 will come very handy. Rudiments of Chemistry, by 

 Temple Orme (same publishers). Another addition 

 to the increasing library of chemical works. It 

 professes, however, to be only the merest elementary 

 introduction, and it really explains the nature of 

 chemical research rather than attempts to teach the 

 science of chemistry. It is remarkable for the 

 simplicity and lucidity of the style, and will be an 

 excellent boy's first book in chemistry. 



A Plea for the Rain-band, by J. R. Capon, F.R.A.S. 

 (London : E. Stanford). This is a re-issue, in a 

 more permanent and attractive form, of Mr. Capon's 

 now celebrated pamphlet (which latter has been 

 long out of print), with additions. Modern Science: 

 a Criticism, by Edward Carpenter (John Heywood, 

 Manchester), shows extensive reading, but poor 

 logic, and contains pages of such assertions as that 

 " Astronomy is the most perfect science because we 

 kno7v least about it " .' Life is too short for books of 

 this kind to stand a chance of success. 



The Definitions of Euclid, by R. Webb (London : 

 George Bell& Sons). Useful to teachers in supplying 

 hints for explanations of difficulties felt by beginners. 

 Euclid will no longer seem foolishness to a boy who 

 has this book to help him. 



A SYCAMORE FUNGUS. 



IN the account of a "Nettle Fungus" in the 

 February number (p. 35) we were concerned 

 with that group of the Sphaeriacea; in which the 

 mouth is elongated transversely so as to form a kind 

 of crest or ridge. The fungus with which we are now 

 concerned belongs likewise to the Sphaeriaceae, but 

 to that group in which the ostiolum is elongated 

 vertically so as to form a beak or rostrum. In more 

 familiar terms it may be compared to a chimney, 

 seated usually on the summit of the perithecium, up 

 which the sporidia have to climb before they can 

 emerge into the light. This chimney, like a real 

 one, generally terminates in a circular opening at the 

 top, although in a few distantly allied species 

 (Melanospora), the opening is surrounded by a fringe 

 or tassel-like arrangement of threads — is in fact 

 fimbriate. 



The ordinary type of a Sphaeria has a more or less 

 globular perithecium, which in by far the majority of 

 cases is crowned with a little prominence or papilla, 

 terminating in a pore. This papilla is in other cases 

 slightly elongated, and it is obvious that what is 

 called a beak is only a more exaggerated form of 

 the same organ, all the intermediate stages being 

 observable in one species or another. The departure 



of the beaked Sphaerias from the typical form is less 

 striking than is that of the long-mouthed Lophio- 

 stomaceae, though even in the latter case also the 

 gradations of change are visible in some species. 



This is probably the reason that induced Saccardo, 

 in his " Sylloge Fungorum," to adopt a different pro- 

 cedure in the two cases. He separates the crested 

 Sphaerias entirely from the Sphaeriaceae, and con- 

 stitutes them, as I have shown, into a distinct family. 

 But the beaked Sphaerias he distributes throughout 



Fig. 48. — Leutomi/a ampulla sea {in situ), showing the beaks 

 emerging from the bark. X 50. 



Fig. 49. — A Single Perithecium. X 100. 



the Sphreriaceae, according to the form and colour of 

 their sporidia. 



This is, I think, a mistake. The two groups 

 stand on the same footing, and are entitled to 

 similar rank ; they should both be considered as 

 sub-families of the Sphaeriaceae. In regard to the 

 beaked Sphaerias, in fact, this is what Saccardo him- 

 self would prefer. In a note on p. 227 of the second 

 volume of the " Sylloge," which seems to have escaped 

 the notice of his critics in this country, he recom- 

 mends that all those genera which have a decided 

 beak should be united by his successors in a sub- 



