626 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



Prunus Padus was examined and cultivated, and is fully described. 

 An ascus form was found on the wintering leaves, which was used for 

 experimental cultures and inoculation experiments, reproducing the 

 Asteroma on the Prunus leaves. The ascus form was found to be a 

 Gnomonia with elongate 1-septate spores, and identical with Sphc&ria 

 padicola. The different synonyms of the two related forms are given. 



Similar cultures were successfully carried through with Gnomoniella 

 tubiformis on alder leaves, of which the '"imperfect" form was proved 

 to be Leptothyrium alneum. Detailed accounts of cultures are given, 

 and the synonyms, which are many, are added. He has found in 

 Gnomonia, so far, that for four different species the imperfect forms are 

 to be sought in four different genera of Sphaeropsideaa. 



Hyphomycetes.* — Lindau concludes the study of the brown-spored 

 forms with the Phfeostaurosporaa, a family containing a few genera with 

 conidia of peculiar form. He begins the third family, that of the 

 Stilbaceaa, which includes those with compound fructification, the 

 conidiophores being massed together to form a definite fruiting body. 

 Under the first section of the family, Hyalosporae, he describes the 

 genera GUkvpodkim, Stilbdla, and Dendrostilbella. 



Uredineas.f — E. Fischer passes in review the development of the 

 Uredine through its differeut life-stages. He notes the disappearance 

 of different stages (uredo or aacidiuni) in certain forms, and attempts to 

 explain the factors that have caused the shortening of the life-history. 

 He finds that these fall into two classes : (1) indirect, through selection 

 — in Alpine localities those that formed teleutospores early in the 

 autumn had a better chance of survival, and in time there persisted 

 those forms with teleutospores only ; (2) direct influence of climate, 

 which caused the uredo stage to be omitted when sudden lowering of 

 temperature took place. 



Merulius lacrymans.J — 0. Mez has issued a treatise on the dry-rot 

 of houses. He has examined the different species of fungi that are 

 wood-destroyers, and gives descriptions of them. Special attention is 

 devoted to Merulius, which is really a forest fungus which has been 

 transported into human dwellings, and he considers that M. Silvester 

 is only a wild form of 31. domesticus. Instructions are given as to the 

 best method of destroying or preventing the " rot." 



Moller§ has also published a communication on this important 

 subject. He describes specimens that he found growing in the open, 

 but concludes that they belonged to the species M. Silvester, which he 

 considers autonomous. He made a series of experiments on the ger- 

 mination of the spores, and found that spores of the " dry-rot " of 

 houses germinated quite normally after seventeen months. 



* Rabenhorst's Kryptogamen Flora, i. 9te Abt., Lief. 109 (Leipzig, 1908) pp. 

 241-304. 



t Mitth. Nat. Ges. Bern (1907) 21 pp. See also Centralbl. Bakt., xx. (1908) 

 pp. 532-4. 



% Dresden : R. Lincke (1908) 260 pp. (1 pi. and 90 figs.). See also Hedwigia, 

 xlvii. (1908) Beibl. pp. 176-7. 



§ Hausschwammforschungen, 1907, beft 1. See also Centralbl. Bakt., xx 

 (1908) p. 537. 



