64 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



Mycological Notes.* — F. von Hohnel devotes almost the whole of 

 his paper to the microscopic structure of Mycena, more especially to the 

 cystidia that occur in the gills. He finds that their form is very con- 

 stant, though occasionally more or less variable within the species. 

 They may be slender, threadlike, or cylindrical, cone-shaped or globose, 

 with intermediate forms. The swollen globose cystidia have frequently 

 fungus-like or blunt thorn-like processes confined to the tip of the 

 cystidium or covering the whole free portion. The tips are, however, 

 mostly simple, though occasionally branched or forked. The sharply 

 pointed are the most constant in form. These bodies are most easily 

 examined when the fungus has just reached maturity ; at a. later stage 

 they are apt to be overlooked. 



Von Hohnel gives a synopsis of the 60 to 70 species studied by him 

 according to the occurrence and form of the cystidia. In each group a 

 certain number bear cystidia only at the edge, others over the surface of 

 the <j-ibs. In one, M. cyanorhyza, there are no cystidia. 



The paper also includes notes on some fungi with descriptions of 

 Yoshinagella g. n. (Dothideacete) from Japan, which forms stromata 

 on the upper surface of Quercus glauca and EndogeneUa g. n. (close 

 to Emloyone). Only chlamydospores were found in the species E. bor- 

 neensis, which was found on soil in Borneo. An index to species men- 

 tioned in the text is given. 



Toxicity of Nitrates to Monilia sitophila.t — It had been proved 

 by various workers that inorganic salts harmful to certain organisms were 

 rendered innocuous when accompanied by organic substances. Otto 

 Kunkel has made an experimental study of the subject, selecting for 

 experimentation the mould Monilia sitophila, which is a rapid grower and 

 develops well on many different media. As a result he found that the 

 concentration at which various inorganic salts are toxic to the fungus 

 depends on the kind of organic substances contained in the media to 

 which these salts are added : thus the ferric nitrate that inhibits the 

 growth of Monilia in starch media had little or no effect on its growth 

 in peptone media. The various results with the different combinations 

 of salts are set out in detail. 



Fixation of Nitrogen by Soil Fungi. $ — A research on this subject 

 was undertaken by H. N. Ooddard to determine which of the soil fungi 

 were most apt to fix free nitrogen, etc. His results were largely negative, 

 and did not bear out the work done by other students. He found that 

 many fungi live habitually in the soil and carry on there their life- 

 history in whole or in part. Many of these have been described and 

 figured. They are uniform in very differents oils and are also rather uni- 

 formly distributed at different depths, at least as low as 14 cm. Tillage 

 and manuring seem to produce little change. They may be isolated as 

 pure cultures by the use of 20-30 p.c. of gelatin in the culture 

 medium. None of the forms studied, including at least fourteen species, 



* SB. Akad. wiss. Math.-Nat. Kl. cxxii. (1913) pp. 255-309 (7 figs.), 

 t Bull. Torrey Bot. Club, xl. (1913) pp. 6:25-39. 

 X Bot. Gaz., lvi. (1913) pp. 249-305 (16 figs.). 



