598 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



the workers who have been devoted to this branch of mycology, and 

 explains the reasons for attempting a new descriptive account of the 

 group. His aim is to amplify and augment the classification he had 

 already published in 1885. An account is given of the season, locality, 

 and habitat of many of the more common forms, and a discussion follows 

 as to the organs that are of value for classificatory purposes. He finds the 

 leading feature in the manner in which the ascus discharges its spores — 

 whether it opens by a lid at the top, or merely bursts. Under these two 

 great groups of " opercules " and " inopercules " he arranges his sections, 

 families, and genera, with descriptions of each. Under the genera he 

 gives a hst of species, with the author and the place of publication. A 

 full index completes the volume. 



Notes on Myxotrichum.* — G. Ferro has revised the species of this 

 genus that he found in the mycological herbarium of P. A. Saccardo. He 

 retains in Myxotrichum the ascomycetous forms, these being M. char tar um 

 and M. ochraceum. M. deflexa and M. spetcBa are relegated to Myxo- 

 trichella as Hyphomycetes. Other species are found to belong to various 

 Hyphomycetes, and one new genus is made, ActinochcBte, to include an 

 undetermined form. The illustrations are to be issued with the next 

 number of the journal. 



Research on the Cycle of Evolution of Pleospora-f — F. Cavara and 

 N. Mollica examined the leaves of a plant of Gorypha australis which 

 had been attacked and badly damaged by a Pleospora. Besides the peri- 

 thecia of Pleospora they found conidia of llacrosporium and Alter n aria, 

 and some fully formed sclerotia. Cultures and examinations showed 

 that they were deaUng with two forms — Pleospora Alter nar ice, which was 

 the cause of the disease, and P. herbarwn, a saprophyte on the infected 

 plant. They found that the sclerotia were those of the latter species, 

 and they describe its formation and development, the growth of Macro- 

 sporium, and the development of the perithecia from the sclerotia. The 

 asci arise from a binucleate cell of a lineal series of hyphae in the fruit- 

 body, the other hypha3 of the series became paraphyses. They emphasize 

 the fusion of hyphaj that takes place after spore germination. They find 

 in the sclerotium certain modified cells that are binucleate and others 

 that contain four nuclei, which arise from the cell fusion of two bi- 

 nucleate cells ; these cells give rise to the linear series of hyphag. The 

 authors represent in a schematic manner the cycle of evolution as they 

 have followed it in their researches. 



American Gooseberry Mildew. J — E. S. Salmon has been making 

 further investigations as to the spread of this fungus. He warns growers 

 of the danger of neglecting to stamp out the disease, which as yet has 

 not spread very widely in this country (it has been reported from three 

 counties). He urges the Board of Agriculture to carry out the follow- 

 ing measures : (1) the prohibition of all further importation of diseased 

 gooseberry stock ; (2) the compulsory destraction of all diseased bushes, 

 compensation being paid when necessary. Hlustrations are published of 

 the disease in all its stages. 



* Nuov. Giorn. Bot. Ital., xiv. (1907) pp. 221-34 (1 pi.), 

 t Ann. Mycol., v. (1907) pp. 119-49 (2 pis. and 4 figs.). 

 X S.E. Agric. Coll., Wye, 9 pp., 6 pis. 



