ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 463 



tion. The disease is caused by a species of Melanconium. The author 

 describes the tissues of the cane, and explains the manner in which the 

 fungus penetrates the cells and vessels and destroys the life of the host- 

 plant. The effects of the fungus are first visible in the leaves — they 

 begin to dry up and turn yellow ; then discoloured patches appear on the 

 outside of the stalks, which show the location of the fungus. The 

 fungus is a wound parasite, having gained entrance usually by the 

 puncture of some insect. In a short time the whole cane dies, or its 

 juices are so exhausted that it is practically useless from the sugar- 

 planter's point of view. Lewton-Brain recommends the destruction of 

 diseased canes and the cultivation of varieties resistant to rind disease. 



In a recent leaflet issued by the Board of Agriculture,* the alarming 

 gooseberry disease is again dealt with. It is stated that the disease has 

 rendered the cultivation of gooseberries unprofitable wherever it has 

 appeared. Nurserymen and gardeners are specially cautioned to be 

 careful, in the buying of new plants, to receive a guarantee of health 

 from the growers or dealers, and then to plant the new stock in a special 

 area at some distance from other gooseberry bushes. They are also 

 advised to destroy all bushes that have been infected, and to spray those 

 that are liable to any risk of infection. A suitable solution for spraying 

 is given : 1 oz. lime of sulphur (crude potassium sulphide) to two or 

 three gallons of water. The leaflet on the subject can be obtained from 

 the Secretary, 4 Whitehall Place, S.W. 



Fungi of certain Termite Nests. f — The nests examined and 

 described by T. Fetch are those of ground-inhabiting ants, in which 

 fungi have been found. They have not yet been noted in the nests of 

 the ants that inhabit trees. The ant-hill is first described ; it looks like 

 a huge bath-sponge, with chambers and tunnels formed of particles of 

 earth covered with saliva by the ants ; and the fungus grows on a comb 

 which consists exclusively of the excreta of the termites. A myceKum 

 covers the comb, and at intervals occur little bunches or spheres of 

 hyphge. They are formed of branching hyphte, bearing either spherical 

 or oval cells ; the latter germinate readily, but do not reproduce the 

 spheres. On old nests an agaric grows, a modified Volvaria. Xylaria 

 stromata are produced from the comb, probably X. nigripes. Other fungi 

 have been cultivated on comb from the nests, such as Miicor, Tham- 

 nidium, Cephalosporium, and Peziza. As they are never found in the nest, 

 it is presumed that the ants weed out all such foreign fungi. Fetch is 

 of opinion that the " spheres " form the food of the termite ants, as the 

 so-called fungus " cabbages " form the food of the leaf-cutting ants. An 

 account is given of the flight of the ants in an appendix. The paper is 

 well illustrated by photographic plates and drawings. 



Gravity as a Form-stimulus in Fungi.j — Heinrich Hasselbring 

 tested the influence of gravity in determining the form of fungi, by 

 growing them attached to the horizontal axis of a kliuostat and rotating 

 them. In some species there was no growth, in others the results were 



* Board of Agric. and Fisheries, Leaflet No. 195 (1 pi. and 1 fig.). 



J Ann. Roy. Bot. Gard. Peradeniya, iii. part 2 (1906) pp. 185-270 (16 pis.). 



t Bot. Gazette, xliii. (1907) pp. 251-8 (3 figs.). 



