ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 621 



Artificial cultures were also carried on, the methods being described 

 in detail. The conidia of Phhospora and the ascospores of Mijco- 

 spfmrella germinated alike, and produced similar conidia. Aggregates of 

 hyphse were formed in the cultures, evidently the beginnings of peri- 

 thecia, but the complete fruit was not produced. 



The second fungus experimented with, Gnomonia Veneti, grows on 

 Plane leaves. Klebahn gives a long account of the systematic position 

 of the fungus, and also of Glososporium, Myxosporium, Discula, and 

 Fusicoccum, species of which grow on the same leaves. By examination 

 and experiment he has proved that all of these are stages of Gnomonia 

 Veneti. He has also produced in artificial cultures a mould-form 

 belonging to the Hyphomycetes. The systematic difficulty of stages of 

 the same fungus belonging to such widely differentiated groups is dis- 

 cussed by the author. The Glozosporium and Myxosporium stages of 

 the fungus are produced on the leaves and twigs while still on the tree. 

 The later forms, Fusicoccum and Gnomonia, grow on the dead leaves on 

 the ground. The more advanced stages are thus saprophytic. As a 

 parasite, the fungus does not do any serious harm to the tree. 



Disease caused by Penicillium glaucum.* — Vittorio Peglion noted 

 from time to time that the familiar blue mould was always present on 

 decaying chestnuts, and not only on old chestnuts but on those recently 

 gathered. He cultivated the Penicillium, and applied to it a test for 

 determining poisonous qualities in filamentous fungi. He brought it up 

 to boiling ,point in a 2 p.c. solution of potash, then added sulphuric 

 acid. The acid mixture was then shaken up with benzine, and after- 

 wards ferric chloride was added. Almost immediately a thin stratum 

 in the liquid took on a bright green colour, proving the presence of 

 "phenol," the poisonous substance of Hyphomycetes. Peglion does 

 not consider that all the forms of Penicillium have the same poisonous 

 qualities. He thinks that probably chestnut meal containing the fungus 

 in question is the origin of the skin disease called " pellagra " — cases of 

 which disease occur among people who make use of chestnut meal as 

 an article of diet. 



Phellomyces sclerotiophorus.t — Frank gave this name to a sterile 

 fungus causing a disease of potatoes, usually confined to the skin, but 

 not infrequently penetrating the tissue of the tuber. 0. Appel and 

 R. Laubert have succeeded recently in inducing further development of 

 the black stromata formed by the fungus. Upright brown conidio- 

 phores bearing at intervals verticils of brown septate conidia were 

 produced, and these corresponded to Spondylocladium atrovirens found 

 by Harz on potatoes and described by him. The name Phellomyces 

 must, therefore, be dropped in favour of the previous designation. 



Hyphomycetes.J — The Botrydideas which G. Lindau commenced in 

 the previous fascicle is completed in the present issue. He divides the 

 genus Botrytis into four sub-genera : Eubotrytis, Polyactis, Phymato- 



* Atti Reale Accad. Lincei, cccii. (1905) pp. 45-8. 

 t Ber. Deutsch. Bot. Ges., xxiii. (1905) pp. 218-20. 



\ Rabenhorst's Kryptogamen Flora, Band i. Abt. 8, Lief. 96 (Leipzig, 1905) 

 pp. 257-320. 



Oct. 18th, 1905 2 t 



