ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 375 



British Discomycetes.* — J. Ranisbottorn has compiled a list of 

 British Discomycetes, with a synoptic key of families and genera, on the 

 lines of Boudier's work on this great sub-class of Fungi. The same 

 writer has also published some notes on the History of the Classifica- 

 tion of the Discomycetes. He gives the first records of the group 

 which date back to very early times. Pliny speaks of a plant belonging 

 to the mushroom genus which was known to the Greeks as Pezica. 

 That name was given again by Colonna to cup fungi in 1606. It was 

 altered to Peziza, the present rendering of the name, by Dillenius. Other 

 forms were noted by successive botanists and new genera established. 

 The present nomenclature of the group dates from Persoon. The 

 modern systems of classification, of which there are a number, are passed 

 in review down to the recent work of Boudier, who bases his two great 

 divisions of Discomycetes on the mode of dehiscence of the ascus. The 

 work of British authors is also described. 



Wintering of Mildews. f — N. Van Poeteren has studied two dis- 

 eases of mildew with reference to the carrying over of infection to a new 

 year. The oak mildew, Oidium quercinum, he found, persisted as Oidhim 

 mycelium at the base of the new shoots where these were still enclosed 

 in the bud scales. Poeteren was associated with Neger in this research, 

 and they made use of potted plants of Quercus pubescens, but also in the 

 open they found the bases of new shoots and leaves of Q. pedunculata 

 densely infected. After a certain advance in growth, the leaves on these 

 shoots are covered with new conidia and serve as centres of further in- 

 fection. The apple mildew, Podosphsera leucotricha, also winters in the 

 same way. The removal and destruction of the first infected leaves and 

 shoots has given good results in the stamping out of the disease. 



Recent Researches on Laboulbeniacese.J — 0. C. Tonghini gives an 

 account of work done on the present state of our knowledge of this 

 group of fungi. He gives an account of the workers in different 

 countries who have devoted themselves to the study of these insect 

 fungi, and gives a detailed description of their structure and mode of 

 insertion in the host, discussing fully the question of parasitism, whether 

 the fungus draws nourishment from the insect or is simply associated 

 with it. 



Oidium of Ruta graveolensj — G. B. Traverso describes a mildew 

 he found on Ruta in Italy, which differed very considerably from other 

 species of the genus Oidium. The conidiophores are slender, occasionally 

 branched, slightly asperulate, and bear conidia of varying form, either 

 ovoid or ellipsoid, and truncate or acuminate at one or both extremities. 

 They are of large size, and the terminal conidium is usually fully de- 

 veloped before the others are differentiated. The fungus was found to 



* Trans. Brit. Mycol. Soc, iv. (1914) pp. 343-404. 



t Tijdschr. Plantenz., xviii. (1913) pp. 85-95. See also Bot. Centralbl., exxv 

 (1914) pp. 299-300. t Malpighia, xxvi. (1913) pp. 329-44. 



§ Atti Accad. Sci. Ven.-Trent.-Istr., vi. (1914) pp. 18-22. 



