710 SUMMAR\' OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



Mycological Notes.* — Bias Lazaro e Ibiza publishes a second series 

 of these notes consisting of descriptions of drawings and photographs 

 issued by him, and of advice as to preserving specimens dry and 

 in liquid. He then gives detailed descriptions of the Mycetozoa, 

 Arci/ria jmnicea and Lycoyala miniatum, oi various genera and species 

 of Uredineffi new to Spain, and of a number of Basidiomycetes and of 

 the larger Discomycetes, all of them first records for the country. 



M. A. Sartory f gives an economic account of Elaphomyces granulatus, 

 which grows in great abundance in the Grand Duchy of Baden and in 

 Alsace-Lorraine. In one forest village, enough of the fungi are collected 

 to nourish :^>00 pigs during April and September. Neither horses, hares, 

 nor dogs will eat these fungi. 



Considerable ambiguity has existed concerning the fungus Agaricus 

 pudicHs. P. Dumee | clears this up by citing all the literature and 

 figures, and deciding which is the true A. pudkus. BuUiard had 

 included two species in his description. 



L. Lutz § has experimented with preservative fluids that will retain 

 the colours of fungi. He finds that acetate of mercuiy with acetic acid 

 in the solution will keep the colours and forms of the fungi almost 

 unchanged. 



Fungi of Ants' Nests. |]—H. Jumelle and H. Perrier de la Bathe 

 have been examining the development of mycelium from the nests of 

 the termite ants in Madagascar. They constantly found a species of 

 Podaxon growing near or on the ant hills, without however being able to 

 prove continuity between the fungus and the mycelium in the nests. 

 They record further experiments with the contents of a recently 

 abandoned nest in which the mycelium grew with great vigour, and then 

 formed the stromata of a species of Xylaria. They do not claim more 

 from their observations than to have proved the impossibility of stating 

 definitely that any one particular fungus is utilised by the ants. 



Fungus-eating Ants of Madagascar.! — H. Jumelle and H. Perrier 



de la Bathe have made a series of observations on this subject. The 



ants that inhabit the open plain cultivate fungi for food as well as those 



that hve in the woods ; but while the latter cultivate the fungus all the 



year round, the former prepare the culture " balls " during the wet 



season only in preparation for the dry season, which lasts from May to 



"'November. The culture " balls " are composed of innumerable mole- 



cui^^ of vegetable matter worked up by the ants, a small quantity of 



earth L,,-na used as cement. The writers examined the fungus and 



concluded ii^.*- \\^ ^^^j. ^ form of CEdoeepUalum, one of the Mucedinese. 



ihey obtained no-udication as to the higher fruiting form. 



Form-developmei>, in Agarics.**— Werner Magnus has conducted 

 a series of experiments on developing Agarics to test their power of 



* Mem Real. Soc. Espail. "list. Nat., v. (1907) pp. 1-47 (3 pis.). 



t Bull. Soc. Mycol. France, xxiii. (1907) p. 86. J Tom. cit., pp. 115-16. 



§ Tom. cit., pp. 117-20. n Comptes Rendus, cxlv. (1907) pp. 274-6. 



If Comptes Rendus, cxliv. (19D7) pp. 1449-51. 

 **nt^^}" ^^°^*°^-' i- (1906) pp. S5-161 (6 pis.). See also Bot. Zeit., Ixv. (1907) 



