56 SUMMARY OK CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



In discussing reproduction, lie gives an account, of the male organs 

 or appendices, and gives the views of himself and others as to the 

 significance of those structures, some of them being fertile and others 



sterile. The latter which surround the spermatic threads may lie con- 

 sidered as merely protective, or they may have some nutritive function. 



The perithecium, or female organ, was also examined, and the author 

 lays stress <>n the perfection of its development, that being a strong 

 argument, he concludes, for the sexuality in these Fungi, though the 

 cytology is not yet perfectly understood. The spores which are pro- 

 duced within the perithecium are expelled in a gelatinous mass ; they 

 consist of two unequal cells, and the larger is always the foremost. 



Then follows a long discussion on the nutrition of the Laboul- 

 beniacese : the author concludes that they are all parasites and draw their 

 nourishment from the host by means of rhizoids, more or less developed. 

 If sufficient nutriment is not obtained in the epidermis, the rhizoids 

 penetrate the lower strata. 



A synoptic key to the genera is given in the systematic part of the 

 paper with descriptions of European genera. A list is also drawn up of 

 the insect, hosts of the Laboulbenise with the parasite peculiar to 

 each, and a full bibliography of the subject is appended. 



Roland Thaxter * lias published an account of LaboulbeniaB parasitic 

 on beetles belonging to the Chrysomelidae, the result of prolonged 

 observation of this particular section of the family. He criticizes genera 

 and species determined by Spegazzini on Argentine beetles. The larger 

 number of species belong to the genus Ldboulbmia, but two other genera 

 are also represented by well-marked forms : Dimeromyces contributing 

 four species from Mexico, the West Indies, and the Straits Settlements ; 

 while seven species of Coriomyces are included, six of them parasitic on 

 " flea beetles " from the West Indies and Brazil, the seventh a very 

 peculiar form from tbe Cameroons and Madagascar. The species de- 

 scribed were all obtained from tropical regions. 



Outbreak of Rust on Winter Grain in Bavaria. f — L. Hiltner 

 has studied the conditions attending attacks of rust disease on wheat 

 and rye due to Puccinia glumarum and P. triticina. The ears were 

 badly attacked, though even in that case the loss to the wheat crop may 

 not be very great. 



There is a general consensus of opinion that rust is favoured by 

 one-sided nitrogenous manuring, especially with nitrate of soda. It has 

 been also found that yellow rust was less severe on fields properly 

 manured, and that thin crops were far more severely attacked than an 

 even crop covering the ground properly. While unbalanced nitrogenous 

 manuring favours rusts, dressings of phosphate prevent the attack, and 

 cereals that follow a green manure crop are also little subject to the 

 fungus. 



The main cause of rust epidemic is the state of the weather : hot 



* Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts and Sci., 1. No. 2 (1914) pp. 17-50. 

 t Wochenschr. Landw. Ver. Bayern, 1914, No. 25. See also Bull. Agric. Intell. 

 PL Dis., v. (1914) p. 1091. 



