ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 439 



Fungi. 



Membrane of Zygospores.* — Paul Vuillemin publishes the results 

 of a research as to the nature and origin of the zygospore layers in the 

 Mucoraceas. He distinguishes five of these, the innermost being the 

 matrix of the membrane, closely united to the protoplasm and having 

 a formative function. The other four layers are : from within outwards, 

 the cartilaginous layer, the median cuticle, the carbon layer (Assise 

 ckarbonneuse), and the external cuticle. All these are protective layers. 

 The author finds that they are not peculiar to the zygospore, but that 

 they are also present in a modified form in the suspensors. He con- 

 cludes that the zygospore is not formed endogenously, but that it is 

 covered by a unique membrane of remarkable complication. 



Bulgaria globosa Fr.f — Gr. Lagerheim gives an account of this 

 fungus which occurs frequently in Sweden on the ground among Pine 

 needles. The author proves its identity with Sarcosoma gloooswn and 

 S. plat //disc us. The spores in the various species of Bulgaria remain 

 colourless for a long time, and become brown only when they are quite 

 mature. 



Sclerotinia and Monilia.J — Eud. Aderhold restates the observations 

 made on the species of Monilia that infest our orchards ; one of which. 

 Monilia fructigena, had been associated by Norton with the Peziza form 

 Sclerotinia fructigena. Aderhold has kept apples infested with Monilia 

 fructigena, and has watched the development on them of a Sclerotinia 

 which does not agree with that described by Norton. He holds, there- 

 fore, that the one found by Norton, as it grew on stone-fruit, was asso- 

 ciated with Monilia cinerea, and should rather be designated S. cinerea. 

 He gives a detailed account of the asci and spores of the species, which, 

 he holds, is the true S. fructigena. 



Sclerotinia Alni.§ — Fr. Bubak has found on the fruits of Alnus 

 glutinosa the sclerotia and their apothecia. The Alnus cones are usually 

 buried under a thin layer of earth. The stalk of the apothecium rises 

 just to the surface of the ground, and the disc, which measures 2-5 mm. 

 across, looks at first like a Humaria. Stalk and apothecium are both 

 brown. 



Epiplasm in the Ascomycetes.|| — A. Guilliermond has followed his 

 previous studies on the metachromatic- corpuscles by a more detailed 

 account of the occurrence of these and other bodies in the ascus. Conte 

 and Vaney have recently announced that these corpuscles in a Protozoon 

 were identical with grains of zymogen, and have showed that they were 

 derived from the chromatin of the nucleus from which they were ejected 

 at certain stages of development. Guilliermond's research had led him 

 to believe that metachromatic corpuscles were formed from the cyto- 

 plasm of the cell independently of the nucleus. 



* Bull. Soc. Sci. Nancy, iv. (1904) ser. 3, pp. 239-G7 (4 pis.). See also Bot. 

 Centralbl. xcv. (1904) pp. 541-2. 



t Botan. Notiser, 1903, pp. 249-G7 (1 pi.). See also Hedwigia, xliii. (1904) p. 50. 



t Ber. Deutsch. Bot. Gesell., xxii. (1904) pp. 2G2-G (1 pi.). 



§ Ann. Mycol., ii. (1904) pp. 253-4. 



|| Rev. Gen. Bot., xvi. (1904) pp. 49-05 (3 figs, and 2 pis.). 



