94 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



reproduction in the Saprolegnieae is apogainic. This does not imply a 

 •complete absence of processes comparable with fertilisation. In the 

 Saprolegnieae the nucleus of the " oospore " is formed by the fusion of 

 many nuclei, which possibly wandered from different parts of the plant, 

 and which are, in any case, essentially different from all those formed 

 by rejjeated nuclear fission in the previous life-history of the plant. 



Aspergillus Oryzee.* — Katherine E. Golden has cultivated this mould, 

 largely used in Japan in the manufacture of sake, and finds no indication 

 that it has the power of causing alcoholic fermentation, or of being capable 

 of transformation, through any conditions whatevex*, into a yeast. It 

 cannot be used effectively in bread-making. 



Phyllactinia. — In this genus of Erysipheae Dr. F. W. Ncgerf de- 

 scribes the tufts of branched cells (in P. guttata) which form mucilaginous 

 drops on the peritheces. By their power of swelling and their viscid 

 nature they fix the half-ripe perithece to moist leaves or other objects, 

 and prevent the spores from falling to the ground before they are fully 

 ripe. 



E. S. Salmon j gives a more detailed description of a similar structure 

 in the case of P. corylea, and ascribes to the arrangement the same 

 function as does Neger. 



Wilt-Disease of Cotton, Water-melon, and Cow-pea.§ — Mr. Erwin F. 

 Smith gives a detailed account of these diseases, and of the parasitic 

 fungus which causes them, which he makes the type of a new genus 

 Neocosmospoixi, nearly allied to Cosmospora, with the following charac- 

 ters : — Peritheces as in Nectria (bright red in the known species) ; asci 

 numerous ; ascospores 8, in one row, brown, globose or shortly elliptical, 

 continuous, with a distinct wrinkled epispore; paraphyses present, in- 

 conspicuous, broad, loosely pointed, unbranched, consisting of about five 

 cells. Three conidial stages, viz. : — Cephalosporium, Fusariurn, and 

 Oidiura. The three varieties of the fungus, which occur on the cotton, 

 water-melon, and cow-pea (Vigna sinensis), have hitherto been known as 

 varieties of Fusarium vasinfecium. 



Fat-destroying Fungus. || — Mr. E. H. Biffen describes a fungus, 

 belonging to the Hypocreaceae but the position of which is not further 

 determined, found on germinating coco-nuts, which has the property of 

 breaking up the oil in the endosperm. The reproductive bodies observed 

 were megaconids, microconids, pycnidiospores, and peritheces ; but all 

 attempts to produce ascospores in the peritheces failed. The author 

 attributes the property of splitting up oil to an enzyme which can be 

 obtained as a flocculent precipitate by the addition of an excess of absolute 

 alcohol. 



Red Mould.lf — Mr. R. G. Curtiss describes a red mould, found in a 

 plate-culture, capable of passing abruptly from a mould to a yeast sta<re. 



» Proc. Indiana Acad. Sci., 1898, pp. 189-201 (12 pis.). Cf. this Journal, 1898, 

 p. 113. + Bot. Centrulbl., lxxx. (1899) p. 11. 



X Journ. Bot., xxxvii. (1899) pp. 449-54 (1 pi.). 



§ U.S. Deptnit. Agriculture (Div. Veg. Phytiol. and Pathol.), Bull. No. 17, 

 1899, 53 pp. and 10 pis. || Ann. of Bot., xiii. (1899) pp. 363-76 (1 pi.). 



H Proc. Indiana Acad. Sci., 1898, pp. 202-8 (10 pis.) 



