566 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



The PolyporaceaB of North America. VII. * — W. A. Murrill con- 

 tinues his exposition of this group of fungi, and gives an account of 

 five genera. Hexagona, the first on the list, replaces Favolus. It is 

 characterised, according to him, by hexagonal, radiately elongated pores. 

 He adds several new species to those already known. Grifola, one of 

 Gray's genera, is made to include a large species with a frondose branched 

 habit. Romellia, a new genus, has been established for one species, 

 Polyporus Schweintzii, which now figures as R. sistotremoides. Coltricia, 

 another of Gray's genera revived, is in part synonymous with the more 

 recent Polgstictus. Coltriciella, also new, has a " pendant vertically- 

 attached pileus." The one species, C. d&pendens, was found growing on 

 dead oak and pine wood. 



Mycorhiza of Muscinese.f — Jaroslav Peklo has studied the occurrence 

 and signification of mycorhiza in the Musci, Marchantias and Junger- 

 manniae. Among the mosses its appearance was definitely proved in 

 Buxbaumia. The hypha3 were found filling the rhizoids and penetrating 

 to the seta and theca. The author doubts if the fungus is of any 

 practical value to the moss. Fegatella was the most liable to infection 

 among the foliose Hepatics, but it was free from hypha? in damp 

 localities. Anthoceros was always free. Many Jungermanniaa were 

 associated with a fungus, but here also Peklo thinks that it is question- 

 able "whether the fungus aids the nutrition of the liverwort. This 

 whole group of plants he finds grows as luxuriantly without the aid of 

 the mycorhiza, and the fungus must be looked on as purely parasitic. 



Diseases of Economic Plants.} — An account has been prepared for 

 the Board of Agriculture of Nectria cinnabarina, a pyrenomycetous 

 fungus that attacks many woody plants, and of the Witch's Broom in 

 Firs, which is caused by an JEcidium. The alternative host of the 

 latter has recently been determined as some form of stitchwort, or 

 chickweed. The removal of these weeds from the neighbourhood of the 

 Firs attacked would effectually stop the disease. Peach-leaf curl, caused 

 by Exoascus deformans, is also described and remedies prescribed. 



Parasites of Edelweiss. § — D. Cruchet examined some diseased 

 plants of edelweiss, and found five species of microfungi growing on 

 the leaves. Lqrfosjihceria Lcontopodii he describes as a new species. 

 Another new species, Stagonospora Leontopodii, may be, he thinks, the 

 conidial form of the Leptosplmria. He also noted a Septoria that may 

 be new to science. He gives full descriptions of all the species found 

 on the plants. 



Diseases of Cereals.|| — D. McAlpine has described two forms of 

 fungal disease that attack wheat in Australia, and both due to the same 

 parasite, Opliiobolus graminis and the pycnidial form Hcndersonia 



* Bull. Torrey Bot. Club, xxxi. (1904) pp. 325-48. 



t Bull. Acad. Sci. Boheme (1903) 23 pp. (I pi.). See also Hedwigia, xliii. (1904) 

 p. 99. 



% Journ. Board Agric, xi. (1904) pp. 202-3 and 239-45 (1 pi. and 3 rigs.). 



§ Bull. Soc. Vaud., xl. (1904) pp. 25-31 (3 pis.). 



j| Depart, of Agric., Bull. No. 9 (1904) 20 pp. See also Ann. Mycol., ii. (1904) 

 p. 300. 



