476 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



species. Among the 105 species from the Azores is Polysiphonia 

 havanensis Mont, on the shell of a marine tortoise, with tetraspores, 

 antherideas, and cystocarps. A text-figure represents the plant in 

 different states of fructification. 



Characese of France.* — F. Hy gives an account of the Characese of 

 France — fourteen Nitelleas and twenty Chareae — with a structural 

 introduction, keys to the genera and species, short descriptions of the 

 species, and distribution in France ; also critical notes and sixty-four 

 figures of structure. 



Fung-i. 

 (By A. Lorrain Smith, F.L.S.) 



New Chytridiaceae.f — A. Fischer united under Gladochytrium the 

 three genera, Clado sporangium, Urophfyctis, and Physoderma, the dis- 

 tinctions between the three having been based on the characters of the 

 zoosporangia, which are rarely found, the resting-spores only being 

 visible as a rule. Of the new species, the first, Gladochytrium Mauryi, 

 inhabits the leaves of Colchicum autumnale ; it causes brown, more or 

 less bullate patches on both surfaces of the leaf ; the spores, one in each 

 host-cell, are spherical, smooth, and chestnut-brown in colour. 



The second species, Cladochijtrium OUivieri, grew in the leaf-tissues 

 of Orchis incamata and 0. laxiftora, somewhat rarely in the latter. It 

 forms dark-brown spots over the whole leaf ; the spores, usually solitary, 

 rarely two in a cell, are brownish and smooth. Although Colchicum 

 grows abundantly in the locality, it is never attacked, nor are the orchids 

 attacked by the Colchicum species. 



Observations on American Discomycetes.J— F. J. Seaver describes 

 a species" of Sphserosoma, and takes occasion to review the facts regard- 

 ing the identity of the genus and its relation to other genera of Discomy- 

 cetes. He judges from the type species, S. fuscescens, that the spores 

 are reticulate and not echinulate. The plant studied closely resembled 

 S. echinulatum, which in turn is very similar to Boudiera areolata, and 

 probably an American form of the fungus. Considerable confusion has 

 arisen in the examination of the spores, as it is often difficult to decide 

 if they are echinulate or only areolate. 



Species of Peridermium.§— J. A. Arthur and F. D. Kean publish 

 an account of Peridermium species that occur on leaves and bark of 

 various species of pine in North America. They first give the history 

 of all known species, by whom discovered and described, and give also 

 the record of cultures made, the latter in tabulated form. The writers 

 emphasize the importance of microscopic examination, as " collections 



* Bull. Soc. Bot. France, lx. (1913) Mem. 26, 47 pp. (3 pis.). 

 t Comptes Rendus, clviii. (1914) pp. 1705-7. 

 % Mycologia, vi. (1914) pp. 103-8 (1 pi.). 

 § Mycologia, vi. (1914) pp. 109-38. 



