624 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



burning over the surface of the soil) becomes a favourable nutrient 

 medium for other fungi besides Pyronema, and they judge that it is, in 

 all cases, due to the large amount of food substances rendered suitable 

 for fungoid growth. 



Monascus. — R. E. Buchanan* has beeu led to examine the moulds 

 that appear on silage, as many farm animals, especially horses, had died 

 after eating mouldy silage. Many moulds belonging to the genera 

 Penicilh'um, Aspergillus, and Mucor were isolated and cultivated ; in one 

 instance the only mould present was Monascus purpureas, not previously 

 recorded from America. It is the characteristic mould used in Eastern 

 Asia for the preparation of red-rice (Ang-quac). Though eleven horses 

 died after eating the silage where Monascus occurred, the author is not 

 certain yet of its pathogenic properties. 



Charles E. Lewis f describes a growth of Monascus Barkeri which was 

 found in a bottle of pickles from Chicago ; it is also new to America, 

 and probably the spores were imported with some of the spices used in 

 preparing the pickles. 



North American Hypocreales. II. % — F. J. Seaver publishes two new 

 species, Macbridella olivacea and Nectria sonata, with studies of their 

 life-histories. He made cultures of the fungi of Macbridella on palm 

 stems and of Nectria on the outside of plant-pots, where it was originally 

 found creeping over green algse, such as Protococcus. Both species were 

 associated with conidial forms belonging to the genus Verticillium. 



Oak-mildew. § — E. J. Klein reports that the mildew appeared in 

 Luxemburg in the beginning of spring in 19o7 while a south-west wind 

 was blowing, and he argues that it must therefore have come from some 

 western locality. His opinion is that it is unconnected with any known 

 oak-mildew in Europe. 



Fusion of Yeast-cells. |) — A. Guilliermond reviews the different publi- 

 cations on the fusion of yeast-cells before ascus formation, and makes a 

 comparative survey of the whole question. He finds that copulation is 

 fairly frequent in yeast-cells, and that there is a great similarity in the 

 process among the different forms. With the exception of Schizosaccha- 

 romyces octosporus, in which there is complete fusion, the two fusing 

 cells remaining distinct with a neck or bridge between them. Fusion 

 may take place in quite small colonies, and the cells in that case must be 

 nearly related, in some cases sister-cells. They may differ in size, but 

 that does not indicate difference in sex, it is merely a stage of develop- 

 ment. Guilliermond repeats that the yeasts are evidently a group in 

 which sexuality tends to disappear and to give place to parthenogenesis. 

 He finds all stages among the forms that have been examined : those 

 that show complete fusion, those in which it has disappeared leaving 

 traces behind, those in which there is no indication of fusion, and finally, 

 as in Saccharomycodes Ludwigii, where the spores fuse on germinating. 



* Mycologia, ii. (1910) pp. 99-106 (2 pi.). t Tom. cit., p. 174. 



% Tom. cit., pp. 175-82 (1 pi., 1 fig.). 



§ Naturalistes luxembourgeois, ii. (1910) pp. 50-2. See also Bot. Centralbl., 

 cxiv. (1910) p. 12. 11 Ann. Mycol., viii. (1910) pp. 287-97 (10 figs.). 



