612 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



the tips of the hyphae, with an accumulation of protoplasm and abundant 

 sporangial formation. In moist conditions Raybaud also noted that the 

 spores found were fairly equal in size : in dry air they varied consider- 

 ably. In moist air they were of a grey hue ; in dry air they were a golden 

 colour. 



Studies in Pyrophilous Fungi. I.* — F. J. Seaver includes under 

 this designation the fungi that grow by preference on charcoal or burnt 

 ground, and his first paper deals with Pyronema omphalodes. He makes 

 a series of observations on the conditions most favourable to the growth 

 of this fungus. It develops equally well on recently burnt ground, soil 

 sterilised by steam, or on agar. It appears very quickly after burning of 

 the ground before any other vegetation has time to grow. Seaver quite 

 failed to grow it on uusterilised soil. Sterilisation of the soil, he con- 

 siders, brings about some change other than the simple elimination of 

 bacteria, which is all-important to the growth of pyrophilous fungi. 

 Notes are given as to culture methods. 



New Genus of Ascomycetes.f — The fungus now described, Gibsonia 

 phseospora g. et sp. n. was found by R. J. Harvey-Gibson on material that 

 was blocking the drains on an estate near Preston, and which consisted 

 largely of Saprolegniacese. The above fungus was also found, and was 

 submitted to G. Massee, who gives a diagnosis of genus and species ; 

 it is almost the exact parallel of Spumatoria Mass. & Salm., in the 

 Hyalosporre. 



Structure and Affinities of British Tuberacese.J — G. Massee de- 

 scribes the development of the sporophore of these underground fungi, 

 from their origin as a minute ball growing from a weft of mycelium. The 

 peripheral hyphfe form the cortex, .and if they cease growing at an early 

 stage, the pressure from within results in the breaking up of the super- 

 ficial layers and the formation of a waited outer wall. "When the spores 

 are mature, the asci deliquesce and the spores lie in the cavity free. All 

 of the Tuberacea? have a strong odour, which attracts rodents. Massee 

 looks on the Tuberaceas as an ancient group of fungi which preceded the 

 Discomycetes, and he traces through several genera the opening of the 

 peridium — at first by a small opening at the apex, finally the cup-shaped 

 disk of the Pezizse. The spores in the Tuberacea? are large and often 

 ornamented with lines, warts, etc., contrasting thus with those of the 

 Discomycetes, which are small and adapted to wind-dispersal. There 

 are in Britain 11 genera and 32 species. The total number of known 

 genera is 27, with 140 species. 



Morphology and Cytology of Aspergillus repens.§ — Elizabeth Dale 

 gives first of all an historical sketch of work done on Aspergillus, and 

 then fully describes the species A. repens, contrasting and comparing it 

 with A.herbariorwn, from which it differs both in the conidial and fruit 

 forms. The fungus was cultivated on beer-wort in 2 p.c. agar-agar. It 

 was found that the archicarp arose as a slender branch, becoming tightly 



* Mycologia, i. (1909) pp. 131-39 (4 pis.), 

 t Ann. Bot., xxiii. (1909) pp. 335-6 (3 figs.). 

 t Tom. cit., pp. 243-63 (1 pi.). 

 § Ann. Mycol., vii. (1909) pp. 215-25 (2 pis.). 



