ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICKOSCOPY, ETC. 353 



stage shows distinctive rnorphologica characters, the substomatal vesicle 

 and the haustoria differing according to the hosts. The work is being 

 carried ont at the Transvaal Department of Agriculture. 



Rudolf Bock * has made an exhaustive study of several species of 

 Uredineae to test the existence of biological forms. In Puccinia Gentiance 

 he failed to prove specialisation, though several species of Gentiana were 

 immune to the fungus ; also some species that were free from rust in 

 the open were easily induced to grow the fungus. With Uromyces 

 Geranii he found that there were several of the hosts recorded that could 

 not be infected by the spores he was cultivating, indicating probable 

 specialisation ; the rusts found on all of the hosts were morphologic- 

 ally identical. Puccinia viola, was also studied, and it was found that 

 another species, P. depauperans, also grew on Viola lutea, V. tricolor, 

 and V. cornuta, which are thus collective hosts. Experiments were made 

 with P. obtusata, which is very similar to P. Isiacee, as already noted by 

 Tranzschel, but probably forms its JEcidia on a much more restricted 

 range of hosts. 



Infection by Smut Fungi. t, — There are two methods of infection 

 described for Ustilago : in one the seedling plants are infected, in another 

 it is the flower that is attacked. Ludwig Hecke finds that there is a 

 third method by which the fungus enters the host, which he calls 

 " shoot " infection. In perennial plants the old stump can be infected, 

 and the new shoots in time produce smutted heads : this was proved in 

 Urocystis occulata on Secede cereale. 



Poisoning due to Amanita Phalloides4 — M. Menier describes two 

 cases of poisoning caused by eating this fungus, one of them fatal. He 

 publishes a complete account of the remedies used to counteract the 

 poison, which were successful in one case, though the patient was more or 

 less indisposed for a month thereafter. A note is added from C. B. 

 Plowright on the poisoning of a family at Ipswich in the autumn of 

 1907. 



Polymorphism of Hymenomycetes.§ — G. F. Lyman has made a 

 large series of artificial cultures of some of the larger fungi, many of 

 which possess some secondary method of reproduction. He proved that 

 JEgerita Candida is the conidial form of an undescribed Peniophora, to 

 which he gives the name P. Candida, and Miclienera artocreas a secondary 

 growth of Corticium subgiganteum. Incidentally he proved the autonomy 

 of Lentodium squamulosum, considered by some to be an abnormal form 

 of Lentinus tigriuiis. He grew the fungus from the spore, the mature 

 fruiting body reproducing all the characters of Lentodium. In many of 

 the cultures he found that the first mycelium grown from the spores was 

 composed of slender hyphre without clamp connections and bearing 

 conidiophores ; at a later stage stouter hyplue with clamp connections 

 and no condiophores were formed. 



* Centralbl. Bakt., xx. (1908) pp. 564-92. 



t Zeitschr. landw. Versuch. Oesterr., 1907. pp. 572-4. See also Centralbl. Bakt., 

 xx. (1908) p. 625. 



J Bull. Soc. Mvcol. France, xxiv. (1908) pp. 68-72. 



§ Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., xxxiii. (1907) pp. 125-209. See also Bot. Gazette, 

 xlv. (1908) p. 207. 



June 17th, 1908 2 b 



