ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 65 



Fungus Flora of Pine Seed-beds. — Annie E. Rathburn {Phyto- 

 p.athologij, 1918, 8, 468-83) undertook this investigation in order to 

 obtain information as to the fungi that might cause the damping off of 

 seedlings. She gives tables of the fungi in the soil and the depths at 

 which they were found, but concluded that Fusarium alone caused the 

 death of the seedlings. She also examined the alimentary canals of 

 worms and grubs, and proved that they were carriers of fungus spores. 

 She isolated and cultured eleven different funo:i. A. L. S. 



Polymorphism of Botrytls cinerea. — W. B. Brierly {Kew Bull, 

 1918, 181, 1 pi.) describes the microconidia of this Botrijtis, which 

 developed either from the vegetative mycelium, from the cells of the 

 conidiophores, or directly by the germination of the conidia. On 

 germination these conidia give rise to the normal conidiophores and 

 conidia of Botrytis. The writer discusses very fully the conditions that 

 induce the formation of microconidia. A. L. S. 



Notes on Australian Fungi N. IV.— J. Burton Cleland and 

 Edwin Cheel {Journ. Proc. Roy.Soc.N.S. Wales, 1918, 51, 475-557) 

 publish notes and observations on the Australian species of Polyporus, 

 Fomes and Bexagona, genera that are somewhat abundant in Australia. 

 The authors have been assisted in their study by C. G. Lloyd, and they 

 publish a classified list of recorded Australian species side by side with 

 Lloyd's determinations. A. L. S. 



Two-spored Basidia.— A. A. Pearson {Trans. Brit, ihjcol. Soc, 

 1918, 6, 39-46) has given a historical account of the occurrence of these 

 basidia, and also the results of his own observations. He finds such 

 basidia in general among the smaller species of Agarics. A. L. S. 



British Mycology.— Carleton Rea {Trans. Brit. Mycol. Soc, 

 1918, 6, 1-14) gives an account of the Autumn Foray of the Mycolo- 

 gical Society at Shrewsbury. He describes the itinerary followed, and 

 the rarer finds of the various days. He gives a complete list of the 

 fungi collected, some of which were new to Britain and a few new to 

 science. A. L. S. 



Fomes officinalis, a Timber-destroying Fungus. — J. H. Faull 

 {Trans. Roy. Canad. Inst., 1917, 11, 185-209, 8 pis.) gives a historical 

 and cultural account of this fungus, which causes red heart rot of the 

 stem of conifers. It is a wound parasite. The sporophures were long 

 regarded as of medicinal value ; the active principle is a resinous sub- 

 stance, agaricin secreted in the form of amurphous granules in great 

 abundance on the hyphge of the sporophore. Faull has proved that the 

 fungus is specifically distinct from Polyporus sidphureus, with which it 

 has been confused at various times. It has occurred in Europe, Asia 

 and America, but so far seems not to have been reported from the 

 British Isles. A. L. S. 



