380 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



This result, however, was probably due to the unnatural laboratory con- 

 ditions. In the open, the mature spores are practically uniform during 

 the life of the sporophore. 



Fruit-body Mechanism of Bolbitius.* — A. H. R. Buller has already 

 described the deliquescence of this fungus as being due to auto-digestion, 

 which in Coprimts proceeds from below upwards on each gill, and so re- 

 moving those parts of the gills which have become spore-free. Buller 

 found that auto-digestion in Bolbitius, on the contrary, does not proceed 

 from below upwards : it does not have any relation to spore-discharge 

 but it is a post-mortem change. In this genus adjacent basidia develop 

 and discharge their spores in succession — another distinction between 

 it and Coprinus. He considers that the various fruit-body mechanisms 

 for the production and liberation of spores being essentially different, 

 the two genera really stand far apart, though the more obvious characters, 

 such as habitat and deliquescence seem to place them together. 



Polyporacese of Ohio.f — In his list of these fungi, L. 0. Overholts 

 includes the species of pored fungi, all except Poria, which is wholly 

 resupinate. He gives keys both of genera and species. He finds that 

 the colour of the internal tissue is one of the most constant gross 

 characters of the plants. The presence or absence of a stipe, the 

 hymenial configuration, etc., are also characters that are made use of. 

 Measurements are given of the various parts of the fruiting body and 

 in many instances microscopic details of pores, spores, etc. are added. 

 An index to the species is appended. 



New Podoxons.J — P. Baccarini describes a Podoxon collected by 

 Guido Paoli in southern Somalia. Dimensions of the various parts of 

 the plant, form and colour of spores, etc., are given. The fungus 

 proved to be a variety of an African species collected by Welwitsch 

 (P. mossamedensis). Another series of specimens from the same 

 locality was distinguished by the spiral markings on the stalk. It 

 proved to be near to P. loandensis, differing only slightly in the method 

 of dehiscence, and to some extent in the coloration. A specimen, more 

 markedly different in the structure of the gleba, and in the colour and 

 form of the spores, was made a new species and named P. Paoli. 

 Diagnoses of variety and species are given. 



Corticium porosum Berk, and Curt.§— E. M. Wakefield gives a 

 description of this rare plant, the only British specimens received by 

 the writer in recent years having been collected by W. B. Grove at 

 Earlswood and Studley Castle, Warwickshire. The " pores looked as if 

 little dew-drops had settled on the hymenium, which had in consequence 

 contracted." In perfect condition the hymenium is quite smooth as in 



* Trans. Brit. Mycol. Soc, iv. 2, pp. 235-8. 



+ Ann. Miss. Bot. Gard., i. (1914) pp. 81-155. 



% Nuovo Giorn. Bot. Ital., xxi. (1914) pp. 241-6 (1 pi.). 



§ Trans. Brit. Mycol. Soc, iv. (1914) pp. 341-2. 



