1899] ERUPTION OF MAUN A LO A 249 



The Poison of Darnel. 



That the darnel (Lolium temulentum) is a poisonous grass, is an old- 

 established and familiar fact, and experts, at least, are aware of 

 Hofmeister's research, which disclosed the presence of two active prin- 

 ciples : temulin, obtained as chloroplatinate, which acts upon the 

 nervous system, and the other, determined by the oily substances and 

 fatty acids of the seed, which attacks the alimentary canal. A new 

 interpretation, however, has recently been suggested by Mr. P. Guerin, 

 of the School of Pharmacy in Paris {Botanical Gazette, xxviii. 1899, 

 pp. 136, 137). 



He has observed in the seeds of the darnel the almost constant 

 presence of a fungus, to which it seems to him reasonable to assign 

 the poisonous effects. This fungus, which is not the Endoconidium 

 temulenturn of Prillieux and Delacroix, has also been detected by Vogl, 

 Hanausek, and Nestler, but Guerin has shown its general occurrence, 

 and that not only in the darnel, but in L. arvense With, (a variety of 

 L. temulenturn) and L. linicola Sond. as well. Its presence in perennial 

 rye-grass is quite exceptional. Guerin has also made the suggestion 

 that the temulin of Hofmeister may be the result of the action of the 

 fungus upon the nitrogenous materials in the peripheral region of the 

 seed. 



The fungus, which is always present in the form of mycelial fila- 

 ments, appears at an early stage in the interior of the ovary, and 

 invades the entire nucellus. It is afterwards crowded out by the 

 development of endosperm after fertilisation, and comes to be restricted 

 to the region between the hyaline layer (which represents the remains 

 of the nucellus) and the outermost endosperm. The observer found 

 this disposition of the fungus in material from Bolivia, Brazil, Chili, 

 Abyssinia, Persia, Syria, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Germany, and many 

 localities in France. In forty seeds of most diverse origin the mycelial 

 zone was lacking only in three. 



Coppinia. 



We are glad to note that Mr. C. C. Nutting, writing in the Proceedings 

 of the United Stcdes National Museum (vol. xxi.), is able to bring 

 forward some very definite proofs that the remarkable hydroid structure 

 called Coppinia is a cluster of gonangia of Lafo'ea. It is remarkable 

 that Nutting's investigations made upon the species Lafo'ea dumosa 

 from Puget Sound were carried on independently of Levinsen's investi- 

 gations on Lafo'ea fndicosa from Greenland, in which corresponding 

 results were obtained. 



