ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 501 



genus of moulds with others, such as Fusarium and Peaicillium, and 

 points out that correct determination of species in these genera also 

 depends on a knowledge of their behaviour in cultures ; though there are 

 also morphological characters that are of value in diagnosis — appearance 

 of the rootlets, size of sporangia and spores, and also the marking of 

 these latter. 



Syncephalastrum racemosum.* — Gr. Kita gives an account of 

 this plant, one of the fungi isolated from the air in Japan. Special 

 cultures were made, and the results are set forth. It is nearly related 

 to RMzopus, and has dark rhizoids. A full diagnosis is given, and an 

 account of the growth of the fungus on various substrata. It has not 

 much enzymatic power, and is therefore not economically of use, but 

 it appears in the manufacture of koji, causing a disease named "kuro- 

 toko disease." 



Protomycetes of Switzerland.! — Giinther von Buren gives a full 

 account of these organisms, with special reference to their life-history 

 and biology. He has made infectious experiments with the spores of 

 the different species, and gives the results of these. He has also em- 

 bedded the different growth stages, and has cut sections in order to 

 follow the cytological changes. He recognizes as genera of this family, 

 Protomyces, Protomycopsis, Volkartia, and Taphridium, all of them well- 

 related to each other. As to this place in regard to other groups of 

 fungi, he compares the cytology of Protomyceta? with that of the 

 Hemiasci, and concludes that the family bears the same relation to 

 Ascomycetes as Ustilaginese do to Basidiomycetes. The second part of 

 the paper deals with the systematic part of the study, each species being 

 diagnosed in the genera Protomyces, Protomycopsis, and Volkartia. 

 Bibliography and indexes of fungi and hosts follow. 



Development in Ascobolse.J — &• Bamlow has studied the cytology of 

 reproduction in Ascophanus carneus and Ascobolus immersus. He gives 

 an account of his methods and of the growth of the fungi in culture 

 media. In both species he found that the normal ascogonium was 

 generally a regularly coiled hyphal branch, which in every part was 

 filled with plasma. With lack of nutrition abnormal formation takes 

 place ; the terminal cell becomes prolonged, and the upper ascogonial 

 cells, frequently also the lower, are almost emptied of plasma. The cross 

 septa of the ascogonial cells show openings in the walls which allow the 

 passage of the nuclei. Both the mycelium and the ascogonial cells are 

 multinucleate, and the nuclei pair before the outgrowth of the ascogonial 

 hyphae. There is no nuclear fusion in the ascogonium ; the nuclei 

 remain paired until the ascus is formed, when the fusion only takes 

 place. The nuclei remaining in the crooked ascogonial hypha may 

 repeat the process of ascus formation. In Ascobotits immersus the 

 dividing nucleus of the ascus has the same number of chromosomes in 

 the three successive divisions. The author finds that there is no 



* Mycol. Centralbl., v. (1914) pp. 126-8 (3 figs.). 



t Beitrage Krypt.-Fl. Schweiz. v. Heft 1 (Berne, 1915) 95 pp. (7 pis.). 



% Mvcol. Centralbl., v. (1914; pp. 177-98 (2 pis.). 



