706 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



cortex of branches, is described as a new species, 'under the name 

 Glozosporium malicorticis. 



Canker of the Coffee.* — Herr A. Zimmermann attributes the disease 

 of the coffee-tree known in Java as canker, to the attacks of a hitherto 

 undescribed fungus, Bostrella Coffese g. et sp. n. No diagnosis of the 

 genus is given, but it belongs to the Ascomycetes. B. Coffese, is a very 

 characteristic wound-parasite [? saprophyte]. 



Bactridium flavum. t — M. P. A. Dangeard describes the structure 

 and the protoplasmic connections in this rare fungus, found on rotten 

 wood, belonging to a genus of Hyphomycetes distinguished by its 

 pluriseptate conids. In the mycele each of the very elongated cells 

 contains a number (about 10, or even as many as 20) of nuclei ; adjoin- 

 ing filaments frequently anastomose with one another ; the cytoplasm 

 exhibits a remarkable granular structure. The cells of the thallus 

 communicate with one another by a perforation which occupies the centre 

 of each transverse septum ; but this connection is probably only transi- 

 tory. The conids are the swollen extremities of mycelial filaments, and 

 are 150-190 //. long by 30-35 fx broad; each consists of from 4 to 6 

 cells, which communicate with one another by protoplasmic threads like 

 those of the thallus. In some of the conids the author finds special 

 spherical bodies resembling those already known in the basids of the 

 Polyporese, the asci of the Pezizeae, and the oospheres of the Perono- 

 sporeae and Saprolegniaceoe. They do not appear to have the functions 

 of centrospberes, and the author proposes for them the term coenosplieres. 

 M. Dangeard regards Bactridium flavum as being probably the non-sexual 

 state of an ascomycetous fungus. It is very subject to deformation from 

 the attacks of a parasitic fungus, Oidium Bactridii sp. n. 



Mycophthorous Fungus. :j: — According to Herr W. Euhland, Hypo- 

 crea fungicola is a true mycophthorous fungus in which the habit has 

 become hereditary. It vegetates freely on Polyporus beiulinus, consuming 

 first its protoplasm and then its cell-membrane, without any direct union 

 of the hyphae of the two fungi. The author further states that there are 

 16, not 8, ascospores formed in the asci by free-cell-formation. 



Origin of the Basidiomycetes.§ — Starting from the discovery that 

 Stilbum vulgare, hitherto regarded as a typical Hyphomycete, is a true 

 Protobasidiomycete, Mr. G. Massee has examined other species of Stil- 

 bum, some of which are known to be the conidial phases of species of 

 Sphserostilbe, while others are not known to be connected genetically with 

 any higher form. He finds that the conidial conditions of Spluerostilbe 

 microspora and gracilipes are identical in structure with Stilbum vulgare, 

 in other words are true Protobasidiomycetes. Hence the conidial con- 

 dition of an ascigerous fungus may be a true Protobasidiomycete. There 

 is no evidence that the Autobasidiomycetes are descended from the 

 Protobasidiomycetes. The former have probably been derived by gra- 

 dual modification of the spore-bearing organs or basids of conidial forms 

 of certain ascigerous fungi. 



* Med. uit s'Lands Plant., xxxvii. (1900) (Batavia). See Bot. Centralbl., Ixxxiii. 

 (1900) p. 88. t Le Botaniste (DaDgeard) vii. (1900) pp. 33-46 (1 pi.). 



t Abliandl. Bot. Vev. Brandenburg, xlii. (1900) pp. 53-64 (1 pi.). See Hedwigia, 

 xxxix. (1900) Beibl., p. 93. § Journ. Linn. Soc, xxxiv. (1900) pp. 438-48 (2 pis.). 



