ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. i i 



confined to the embryo, and passed a resting stage in a symbiotic 

 relationship with the grain, no deleterious parasitic action having taken 

 place. Other questions are discussed, such as the mycoplasma theory, 

 the liability to infection, effect of weather, etc. 



Exobasidium on Azalea. — M. Raciborski * has described the 

 growth of Azalea politico, in the Sandomerer wood on the Caucasus. 

 On the drifting sand heaps Azalea forms thick clumps of bush along 

 with other plants, of which he gives a list. The leaves of the shrub 

 are thickly infested with the gall-like Exobasidium discoideum. It 

 appears on the under side of the leaves, at first greenish-white, 

 becoming orange-red where exposed to light, and finally primrose, with 

 the coating of basidiospores : these are at first linear, slightly bent, and 

 1-celled, but before germination they become 1-3-septate. 



R. Laubert \ -describes the same disease on Azalea, in Germany : he 

 compares it with allied species on Vaccinium, Rhododendron, and 

 Azalea, and gives advice as to the best methods of checking the disease. 

 He specially advises cutting away and burning the diseased parts. 



Podoscypha undulata.J— Rene Maire received a specimen of this 

 fungus from the Vosges, and as it is a rare and imperfectly known 

 plant, he takes occasion to give a full description and figures, and to 

 rectify various errors of nomenclature. It is a small fungus with a 

 cup-shaped pileus, the under side bearing the hymenium. Cystidia are 

 numerous, spores colourless, smooth, and very small. 



Notes on the Larger Fungi.— Gr. F. Atkinson § describes at con- 

 siderable length a new Amanita from the high Sierras and the Coast 

 Range of California It attains to a large size and is covered by a 

 white tough skin, the calyptra of the volva. 



F. G. Kobe || describes a case of an alga living on a fungus and the 

 changes induced thereby. The fungus was almost certainly Russala 

 /raff His ; the alga, Raphidium (Pleurococcacese). The Russula was 

 considerably dwarfed and the gills undeveloped where the alga had 

 spread. Kohe does not recognise any advantage to the fungus in this 

 symbiosis, but the alga which received shelter and moisture grew 

 vigorously and abundantly. 



W. A. Murrill If gives a black and white plate of illustrations of large 

 fungi, most of them puff-balls ; these he specially recommends for the 

 table, being easily identified fungi, and none of them being poisonous. 

 They should be gathered when young, before the spores have formed. 

 Several of the fungi are figured and described. 



Lars Romell ** remarks on the cases where fungi, that usually grow 

 on coniferous trees, may be found on deciduous trees, and vice versa. 

 Among such he cites Dsedalea unicolor, a parasite of deciduous wood, 

 but found by him on Pinus Abies ; Pohjporus zonatus and P. adustus, 



* Bull. Acad. Sci. Cracovie, 1909, pp. 385-91 (2 figs.). 



t Handelsbl. Gartenbau, xxiv. (1909) pp. 466-8. See also Bot. Zeit., lxvii. (1909) 

 p. 285. t Ann. Mycol., vii. (1909) pp. 426-31 (2 figs.). 



§ Bot. Gaz., xlviii. (1909) pp. 283-93 (8 figs.). 

 || Beih. Bot. Centralll, xxiv. (1909) pp. 427-30. 

 i Mycologia, 1. (1909) pp. 257-61 (1 pi.). ** Tom. cit., pp. 265-7. 



