76 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



(Edocephalum on cotton wool used as a stopper in connection with 

 water cultures of plants. Not only the cotton wool but the culture 

 plants themselves were soon covered with a growth of the fungus. In 

 the space of two weeks (Edocephalum died down and was succeeded by 

 tiny red cushion-like growths, which increased, and finally formed into 

 plants of Pyronema. The author reviews work done on the germina- 

 tion of Pyronema ascospores, and cites the case of Peziza vesiculosa, of 

 which Brefeld determined the conidial form to be an (Edocephalum. 

 Schmidt also germinated Pyronema ascospores. These were difficult to 

 obtain without bacteria that destroyed the cultures until he employed 

 the dilution methods, so useful in bacterial cultures. From spores so 

 obtained he reproduced a vigorous growth of (Edocephalum. The 

 colour substance is also discussed, and the physiological properties of 

 the fungus. 



Uredinese.* — J. C. Arthur gives some notes on rusts that may 

 prove of service to the general botanist. An important part of field 

 work is to re-visit the locality where any rust has been found and see if 

 any further stage has developed on the original or other hosts. Another 

 task prescribed is to take the rust to a healthy plant of the second host 

 in some other locality and leave it there, then to note if infection has 

 taken place. Failure may mean some flaw in the experiment, or it 

 may indicate that the true second host has not been found. 



Frank D. Kern | discusses the importance of Timothy rust, which 

 seems to be increasing ; an account of its identity and nature are given. 



Aaron G. Johnson J gives an account of hetercecious rusts in Indiana 

 in tables showing those that have been co-related and their several 

 hosts identified. The life-histories of thirty-four species of rusts in 

 Indiana are known, though the ajcidia of nine of these do not occur in 

 the State. 



J. C. Arthur § publishes the Cultures of Uredinefe in 1908, the 

 article forming the ninth of a series of reports on the culture of plant 

 rusts. Grass and cedar rusts figure largely in the report. Collecting 

 trips were made and accounts are given of much good work done. 

 A list of experiments is given which gave only negative results. 

 Successful results are chronicled in twenty-three cases ; a number of 

 new species are described with their cultural records. 



Smut Infection of Wheat and Barley. ||— Brefeld and Hecke made 

 the discovery simultaneously some years ago that when the oat plant 

 was infected by smuts in the seedling stage, Avheat and barley were 

 attacked by the flower. Wilhelm Lang has taken up the subject and 

 has examined the infected seed. He finds that the spore on germina- 

 tion penetrates the ovary of the host ; by following the track of the 

 pollen tube, it follows the line of least resistance, and its path is made 

 still easier by the withering of the stigma after fertilisation. Lang did 

 not find that hyphae penetrated the endosperm ; they were always 



* Proc. Ind. Acad. Sci., 1908, p. 83. f Tom. cit., p. 85. 



J Tom. cit., pp. 87-94. § M\cologia, 1. (1909) pp. 225-56. 



|| Centralbl. Bakt., xxv. (1909) pp. 86-101 (1 pi. and 2 figs.). 



