210 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



M. F. Barret* gives full synonymy and descriptions of three species 

 of Auricular ia : A. auricula, A. nigrescens, and A. mesenterica, all of 

 them found in America. They have been described under many different 

 names. 



W. A. Murrill f publishes a new genus of Phalloids collected near 

 Cinchona, Jamaica, which he names Protophallus. It resembles the 

 egg of a Phalloid, but it never elongates, and shows no trace of a stipe. 

 Unlike other members of the order, it is odourless. 



F. von Hohnel % collected a number of the larger fungi in South 

 Tyrol. He found Cyphella fasciculata, a North American species, on 

 alder leaves ; it had been previously collected in Venetia. Critical 

 notes and corrections are appended to the descriptions of species. 



Symington Grieve § exhibited before the Edinburgh Botanical Society 

 a specimen of Schizophyllum commune on the fruit of the coco-nut palm ; 

 the nut had germinated, and then the shell had been cracked or rotted 

 off, exposing the endosperm on which the fungus had grown. The speci- 

 men was found in Dominica, at the mouth of a rivulet. These coco-nuts 

 resist sea-water, and it was suggested that experiments might be made to 

 see if the spores of the fungus would retain their vitality after being 

 soaked in sea-water. 



H. Mayr || has attempted to introduce forest culture of edible fungi, 

 especially of species of truffle. He bases his recommendations on his 

 knowledge of Japanese methods, and he made experiments with a much- 

 appreciated Japanese fungus, Agaricus shitake. The successwas not clear, 

 but he hopes to carry on the experiments with other Japanese edible 

 species. 



J. S. Bayliss If has made a biological cultural study of Pohjst ictus 

 versicolor. He obtained from the germinating spores an Oidium-f ovming 

 mycelium, then a few months later the proper mycelium, which de- 

 veloped into the pilei of the fungus. He found that it grew easily on 

 ash, mountain-ash, sycamore, horse-chestnut, or birch, not so easily 

 on alder, oak, or elm. No culture was successful in the laboratory ; the 

 fungus grew only in the open air, and best in warm weather. Changes 

 of moisture in the atmosphere gave rise to zone-formation. Light in- 

 fluenced the coloration of the zones and the formation of the pores ; the 

 latter were never produced in the dark. The author also deals with the 

 enzymes of the fungus and its destructive power on wood. The mycelium 

 is remarkably long-lived : it revived after being dried up four years. 



W. A. Murrill ** describes the cultivation of an edible mushroom in 

 Formosa, called by the natives " Shutake." It is highly esteemed by the 

 Chinese and Japanese, and had been recently introduced from Japan. The 

 oak-tree, on which it grows, is cut down and rice-water is thrown over it 

 at intervals to prepare it for the mushroom. Murrill also mentions that 

 the edible mushroom of Jamaica, known by the native name " Junju," 



* Mycologia, ii. (1910) pp. 12-18. t Tom. cit., pp. 25-6. 



X Oesterr. Bot. Zeitschr., lix. (1909) pp. 62-6 and 108-12. 



§ Trans. Proc. Bot. Soc. Edinburgh, xxiv. (1909) pp. xii-xiii. 



I! Nat. Zeitschr. Forst.-Landw., vii.(1909) pp. 274-9. See also Ann. Mycol.,vii. 

 (1909) p. 563. 



\ Journ. Econ. Biol., iii. (1908) pp. 1-22 (2 pis.). See also Hedwigia, Beibl., xlix, 

 (1909) p. 25. ** Mycologia, 1. (1899) pp. 274-5 (1 fig.). 



