568 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



* Elementary Mycology : an outlook over the whole field, '.describing tlie 

 growth and development of the different groups of fungi, and comparing 

 them with the higher plants. In ' Minor Mycological Notes ' * he states 

 the occurrence on the same leaf of Uncimda polychceta and U. parvula, 

 and he gives a list of fungi from Cedar Point on Lake Erie. 



Helicomycelium fulignosum.f — E. Dubourg has studied a mould 

 that had attacked railway sleepers although they had been impregnated 

 with creosote. The sterilising liquid had not penetrated to the centre 

 of the wood, and there the fungus had developed. No fructification 

 was observed, nor could any be induced in the artificial cultures, but the 

 brown colour and the tendency of the hyphge to form into coils sug- 

 gested the above designation. Dubourg's research deals with the physio- 

 logical action of the fungus, its behaviour towards hydrocarbons, acids, 

 sugars, etc., and the products of its metabolism. Finally he recounts 

 the influence exerted by various antiseptics on the growth of the my- 

 celium. Sulphate of copper in the culture was found to be ineffective. 

 Sublimate prevented all growth, and creosote was almost as powerful in 

 its effects. Experiments are wanted in connection with the wood itself 

 to decide as to the best means of preventing fungoid attacks. 



Growth of Moulds.^ — Jacob Nikitinsky has been testing the inter- 

 action of different moulds when grown in the same culture solution. 

 He found that Raulin's solution was better adapted to the growth of 

 other moulds after Aspergillus niger had been grown in it. On the 

 other hand, the development of acids in the solution is fatal to the 

 growth of some fungi, but if the acid be neutralised, the solution is 

 found to be most favourable. The author gives also the results obtained 

 by him with growths of yeasts, etc. 



Conidial Forms of the Higher Fungi. § — Marin Molliard has 



made cultures of the spores of Sarcoscypha coccinea, and describes and 

 figures the conidial growth. He finds that they resemble those of 

 Coryne and Chlorosplenium rather than those of the Peziza?, and he 

 considers that this rather points to the affinity of Sarcoscypha with the 

 Helvellaceae. 



Disease of the Coffee Plant. || — Georges Delacroix gives an account 

 of various fungi that have attacked the coffee plant in different regions. 

 He describes the fruit of Capnodium coffece which he had watched 

 through the stages of growth. Specimens of dried branches were sent 

 to him from Mexico, and the desiccation was due, he considered, to the 

 presence of three fungi : one pyrenomycetous form, and pycnidia of 

 Hendersonia and Rhabdospora, all of them new to science. He also 

 found a new species of Phyllostieta on leaves of coffee from Vera- Cruz, 

 and still another Phyllostieta on a different host which he names 

 P. eomoensis. 



A. Puttemans *H contributes an account of the Fumagos of coffee 



* Journ. MycoL x. (1904) pp. 114-6. 



t Mem. Foe. Sci. Fkjs. & Nat. Bordeaux, seir. G, iii. (1903) pp. 263-72. 



t Jahr. wiss. Bot., x. (11)04) pp. 40-1. Sec also Bot. Zeit., Ixii. (1904) pp. 213-5. 



§ Bull. Hoc. Mycol. France, xx. (19C4) pp. 139-41 (! fig.). 



|| Tom. cit., pp. 142-51 (1 pi.). 1 Tom. cat., pp. 152-4 (1 pi.). 



