ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 243 



been cultivated since that date. Two plots of the field were used, and a 

 very strong infection of the new potato plants was found on both plots, 

 so the dormant spores must have retained their vitality in the soil for 

 seven years. The operation is to be repeated in subsequent years on 

 neighbouring plots. 



Conditions of Development of Sclerotinia trifoliorum.*— PegUon 

 Vittorio has traced the life-history of this fungus in relation to an out- 

 break of clover disease. On a plot of ground where the clover had 

 succumbed to the disease he found many sclerotia in the soil, from 

 which apothecia were developed towards the end of October and the 

 beginning of November. He placed these in Petri dishes, and so 

 secured the spores, which germinated freely and formed myceUum, and, 

 subsequently, other sclerotia. Fragments of the niycelium from the 

 gelatin cultures were transferred to a pot sowed with clover, lucerne, 

 and fenugreek, and the young plants were destroyed as they appeared. 

 The fungus had formed an inconspicuous network of mycelium over 

 the soil, which surrounded the bases of the young stalks and destroyed 

 them. 



Fungi on Burnt Places.f — F. J. Seaver describes two such fungi 

 collected in the outskirts of New York : Peziza -proteana, a waxy white 

 species changing slightly to lilac ; and P. y/oZ«ce«, pale violet, but becoming 

 darker and finally almost black. Both are European species ; the 

 former is recorded also from Texas, the latter from Wisconsin. It is 

 not suggested that they may be imported species. 



Fungus Spores in a Moss-capsule. :{: — E. M. Dunham found these 

 spores in a capsule of Fanaria hygrometrica var. patula collected at 

 Miami, Florida. The spores were 3-septate and ciliate at the ends, 

 resembling those of Pestalozzia. This fungus is usually a leaf -blight, 

 and forms its conidia beneath the epidermis. Though moss-capsules 

 provide a favourable substratum for fungi, especially in moist warm 

 regions such as Miami, E. M. Dunham considers that their occurrence 

 in Fimaria hygrometrica is rather remarkable, as it is an annual species, 

 the capsule of which lasts but a short time. 



Cylindrosporium on Stone-fruits. § — Bascombe Britt Higgins has 

 made an interesting study of this shot-hole fungus. The fungus forms 

 elongate colourless conidia on a more or less disk-shaped very thin 

 stroma, just beneath the host-epidermis. When the conidia have accu- 

 mulated in sufficient numbers, the epidermis is broken and the spores 

 are squeezed out in long tendrils. The mycelium of the fungus is 

 intercellular, with haustoria which penetrate the host-cells. These enter 

 through a very small hole in the cell-wall, but the end swells out after 

 entrance into an oval or elliptical body containing a nucleus and a 



* Atti Eeale Accad. Lincei, ser. 5, xxv. (1916) pp. 521-4. See also Bull. Agric. 

 InteU. Rome, vii. (1916) pp. 1037-8. 

 t Mycologia, ix. (1917) p. 1-3 (1 pi.). 

 t Bryologist, xix. (1916) pp. 89-90 (1 fig.). 

 § Amer. Journ. Bot., i. (1914) pp. 145-73 (4 pis.). 



