ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICKOSCOPY, ETC. 751 



<synkarion) which divide at the same time (conjugate division). The 

 young basidia are always binucleate and at their moment of fusion are 

 in the spirem stage. The fused nucleus soon divides and shows a well- 

 marked spindle with centrosomes ; at first a number of chromatin 

 granules are present (protochromosomes of Maire), but these soon unite 

 into two definite chromosomes. By a later division four nuclei are 

 formed, but typically only one or two sterigmata are produced, into each 

 of which a single nucleus travels. The nucleus of the basidiospore very 

 soon divides, so that the mature spore may contain as many as eight nuclei. 



Diseases of Grasses.* — L. H. Pammel, J. B. Weems, and F. Lamson- 

 Scribner have included in their account of the grasses of Iowa an 

 enumeration of the most important of their fungus diseases found in the 

 territory. The seedlings were liable to injury by such moulds as Peni- 

 cillium glaucum, &c. ; the older plants were attacked by bunts, smuts, 

 rusts, and various other more or less well known fungi, all of which are 

 recorded. Several cases of loss were due to the action of bacteria. 



Mycological Notes.f— C. Massalongo finds that the leaves of Querent 

 pubescens are destroyed by Glceosporium nervicolum ; that anthracnosis 

 of the leaves of Populus tremula was caused by the attack of a fungus 

 corresponding to Fusicladitim Tremukc Frank., but more correctly named 

 Napidadium Aster oma. According to Vuillemin it is the conidial stage 

 •of Didymosphceria populina. The writer also describes a new Hypho- 

 mycete Fusarium lichenicolum, which he found parasitic on the thallus 

 of the lichen, Candelaria vulgaris. 



Metachromatic Corpuscles in the Ascomycetes.^— M. A. Guillicr- 

 mond proves anew by his researches on Ascobolus marginatus that 

 these corpuscles are reserve-materials. The spores at their first forma- 

 tion in the ascus are small bodies with a fine membrane ; gradually, as 

 the spore matures, it absorbs the surrounding cytoplasm, the glycogen, 

 and the metachromatic corpuscles, which are present in great abundance. 



British Microfungi.§ — A. Lorrain Smith publishes a descriptive 

 list of species new to science or of rare occurrence. There is one new 

 genus Ampullar ia, a member of the Nectrioidacese, distinguished by the 

 dark brown spores. The writer resuscitates the genus Bradiydadium 

 of Corda to include species with non-catenulate spores that have been 

 placed in Dendryphium. The latter genus contains forms with spores 

 borne in chains at the tips of the fertile hyphas. 



Mycorhiza.|| — P. E. Muller notes two forms on the roots of 

 Mountain Pine. Besides the usual racemosely branching roots, he 

 found some that branched dichotomously with little tubercles. These 

 are peculiarly abundant in sandy soil and are doubtless agents for absorb- 

 ing nitrogen. 



* Iowa Geological Survey. Des Moines (1901). 525 pp., 220 figs., 3 col. pig. 

 See also Centralbf. Bakt., x. (1903) p. 72. 



t Malpighia, lx. (1903) pp. 419-23. 



X Comptes Rendus, exxxvi. (1903) pp. 253-55. 



§ Journ. 13ot., xli. (1903) pp. 257-G0 (1 pi.). 



|j Overs, k. Dauske Videnskab. Selskabs. Forh., 1902, No. 6, pp. 249-56. Se 

 also Bot. Centralbl., xciii. (1903) p. 258. 



3 C 2 



