ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 675 



abundant on Prunus domestica that the leaves were covered with the 

 spores, and fell mostly before the fruit was ripe. Oymnosporangium 

 Sabinse made its appearance on the leaves of Pyrus communis. Species 

 of Phragmidium, Gronartiirm, and Melampsora were also recorded. The 

 abundance of the rusts during the year is explained by the persistent 

 damp weather. 



Y. Orishimo * has established by culture experiments the connexion 

 between Peridermium Pini-densiflorse P. Henn. and a Coleosporium on 

 Aster scaber, the latter to be called G. Pmi-Asteris. The writer also 

 gives a list of Japanese Goleosporium species, with their host-plants. 



Ed. Fischer f gives a critical review of Uredinese experiments carried 

 on during the year 1909. He refers to the immense scope for work in 

 North America, and gives a list of successful culture experiments carried 

 out by Arthur on Puccinia and on Gymnosporangium. In Europe work 

 was done by W. Tranzschel in clearing up the relationships of various 

 hetercecious species. He established the existence of hemi-forms (with- 

 out pycnidia). Tranzschel also worked at pleophagous species such as 

 Puccinia Isiacse, which attack different hosts. The opposite tendency is 

 found among the physiologically specialized species such as P. Hieracii, 

 examined by R. Probst. The results of other workers on these lines are 

 also given. 



o* 



Nuclear Phenomena in Puccinia Podophylla.J — Lester W. Sharp 

 has published a preliminary note on this subject. He finds that in the 

 mycelium, from which arise the ascidia and spermogonia, a binucleate 

 condition prevails, the nuclei being associated in pairs, even before there 

 is any indication of ascidium formation. The aecidium arises in a dense 

 tangle of hyphas beneath the epidermis of the host. Certain cells 

 enlarge and become the " basal cells " of the secidiospore chain. Cells 

 may have fused — there is no clear evidence — but there is no migration 

 of nuclei. Observations on the formation of spermatia are also given. 



Smut Fungi. — D. McAlpine§ gives an account of the smuts of 

 Australia in a volume similar to the one he published on the rusts some 

 years ago. He begins with general characters of the families, their 

 life-histories and distribution, and then treats more particularly the 

 cereal smuts and grass smuts. Other genera occurring on herbaceous 

 plants are more shortly dealt with. McAlpine gives a host-index, a 

 general index, and a fungus index. From the latter we learn that there 

 are twelve genera of smuts in Australia. The volume is copiously illus- 

 trated by photographs. 



H. C. Schellenberg || has more recently published the smuts of 

 Switzerland. He also gives a general account of the fungi. He divides 

 them into two great families, Ustilaginacea3 and Tilletiaceas, and gives 

 keys to the genera, seventeen in all. In his descriptions of species he 



* Bot..Mag. Tokyo, xxiv. (1910) pp. 1-5. See also Ann. MvcoL, ix. (1911) p. 301. 



t Zeitschr. Bot., ii. (1910) pp. 332-6. 



I Bot. Gaz., Ii. (1911) pp. 463-4. 



§ The Smuts of Australia. Melbourne (1910) vi. and 288 pp. (56 pis.). 



Beitrage zur Kryptogamenrlora des Schweiz, iii. Heft 2 (Bern, 1911) xlv. and 

 180 pp. (79 figs.). 



