492 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



and some of them in two days. Paul Becquerel, who records the experi- 

 ments, argues on the significance of vitality. " Life," he says, " is only 

 the physico-chemical functioning of protoplasmic organisms induced by 

 their ceaseless connexion with the elements of matter and the different 

 forms of energy." 



Ambrosia Fungi.*— J. Beauverie has studied these fungi in con- 

 nexion with the galls of various insects, and gives the results of his obser- 

 vations. He has come to no definite conclusions, as it is difficult to 

 distinguish between the Ambrosia fungus proper and fungi that may 

 only be impurities. A new observation he has made is the constant 

 presence of a yeast in the galleries of the wood-beetle. 



British Mycology. f — An account is given of a spring foray for the 

 collection of fungi, organised by the British Mycological Society. The 

 foray was held at Shrewsbury in the end of May 1909, when over 194 

 species were found by the members of the society. A list of the species 

 is given. The autumn foray was held at Baslow, Derbyshire, in the end 

 of September, and resulted in the collection of over 533 species of fungi, 

 including ten new to Britain, and five new to science. The Mycetozoa, 

 numbering forty species, are also enumerated. 



Professor Potter chose as the subject of his presidential address, 

 Bacteria in their relation to plant pathology. He traces the history of 

 our knowledge of these organisms as connected with plant diseases, and 

 describes some diseases that are due to bacteria, such as " white rot " in 

 turnip. He draws attention to the large and varied flora of bacteria and 

 microfungi that may be found growing on the surface of healthy leaves, 

 and also to the soil bacteria which may sometimes penetrate the roots 

 of plants. He does not consider that the mutual relationship between 

 bacteria and parasitic fungi is at all clearly understood. 



Rene Maire, who attended the foray as a representative from the 

 French Mycological Society, gives diagnoses and descriptions of some 

 new and interesting British Hymenomycetes found during the foray. 



A. Lorrain Smith publishes a list of fungal parasites of lichens that 

 had been generally classified in Britain as lichens ; they are Pyreno- 

 mycetes belonging to the genera Ticothecium, Didymosphseria, Pharcidia, 

 Massaria, and Mutter ella. 



The same writer also gives a list of new or rare microfuugi collected 

 during the past year in various parts of Great Britain. 



A. D. Cotton contributes a third series of notes on Clavarise, with 

 special diagnoses and notes of several species. He gives revised de- 

 scriptions of G. Kunzei, C. umbrinella, C. tenuipes, and records a new 

 species, C. persimilis. 



W. B. Allen remarks on the large number of Mycetozoa collected 

 during the autumn foray ; he gives descriptive notes of the more rare 

 and interesting forms. 



Rend Maire contributes a weighty paper on The Bases for the 

 Systematic Determination of Species in the Genus Russula. He points 



* Ann. Sci. Nat., xi. (1910) pp. 31-64 (9 figs.). 



t Trans. Brit. Mycol. Soc, Season 1909, ,iii. pt. 3 (1910) pp. 131-232 (4 pis., 

 3 ooloured). 



