y/ 



ZOOLOGY AND .BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 215- 



Extra-European Fungi.* — N. Patouillard describes twelve new 

 species of fungi belonging to Basidiomycetes and Pyrenomycetes, and 

 collected both in the Eastern and Western hemisphere's. 



II Trattato dei Funghi.f — This treatise on Fungi was published 

 anonymously in Rome in 17D2, and the authorship has always remained 

 a mystery. Matteo Lanzi has recently taken the matter up and has 

 proved indubitably that it was written by the Baron Girolamo Gavotti. 



Schizophyta. 

 Schizomycetes. 



Genus Crenothrix.J — D. 1). Jackson gives a general account of this 

 genus which is of importance in connection with water supplies. 

 Hitherto only one species of the genus has been described, G. Jcuhniana, 

 the well-known species which precipitates hydroxide of iron and occurs 

 in reddish-brown flocks or strings. A second species, hitherto known as 

 Leptothrix ochracea, must be included in this genus ; its precipitate is 

 yellowish in colour and consists chiefly of alumina. A third species, 

 which has never been named, is rarer than the second ; it precipitates 

 manganese, and as large quantities of manganese are rarely found in 

 water supplies it has had less opportunity than the other species of 

 developing in noticeable amounts ; the colour of the precipitate is from 

 brown to almost black. The author calls it G. manganifera. 



All three species occur chiefly in ground waters, and only grow with 

 rapidity when the dissolved oxygen is lacking, or nearly so, and when 

 the special salts are present which they precipitate. Presence of much 

 organic matter seems to favour growth. The author gives a brief de- 

 scription of the genus and a tabular comparison of the three species, and 

 of the analyses of their precipitates, and of the water in which they grow. 



Streptothrix.§ — A. G. R. Foulerton and C. P. Jones have examined 

 twenty-five species of this fungus, adopting the term Streptothrix in pre- 

 ference to the older Actinomyces. The mature fungus presents a tangled 

 mycelium, and if growing on the surface of the medium, lateral 

 branches become erect and undergo a process of chain sporulation. 

 Certain lengths of the mycelium then degenerate, and coincident with 

 this change, sporulation in the terminal parts of the mycelium and 

 branches occurs. The free spores have been described as coccal forms 

 of a pleomorphic schizomycete, but the botanical position of Strepto- 

 thrix has been the subject of considerable dispute. Harz regarded it 

 as a hyphomycete, others as a highly pleomorphic schizomycete ; but 

 Foulerton and Jones have conclusively shown that the different " forms " 

 of Streptothrix are merely different .stages in its life-history, and that 

 the fungus is undoubtedly a hyphomycete. 



The thermal death-point was ascertained for all the species examined 

 except one, the temperatures varying from 45 ' C. to 70° C. A con- 

 siderable portion of the research was concerned with the pathogenic 

 action of the fungus. 



* Bull. Soc. Myc. de France, xviii. (19112) pp. 299-303. 

 t Atti Ace. Pontif. Nuov. Lincei, li. (189S) pp. 2. 

 t Trans. Amer. Micr. Soc., xxiii. (1902) pp. 31-8 (1 pi.). 

 § Trans. Path. Soc. Loud., liii. (1902) pp. 56-127. 



