106 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



Australian and New Zealand Fungi.* — E. M. Wakefield publishes 

 a descriptive list of some fungi that were collected in Australia and New 

 Zealand by W. N. Cheesman, on the occasion of the visit of the British 

 Association. Tlie species belong more or less to the temperate type of 

 fungus flora. Of the 100 species named, forty-eight, or nearly half, 

 occur in Europe or North America, or both. Of these forty-eight, 

 twelve only are cosmopolitan. Of the remaining species, twenty-eight 

 are endemic to Australasia, these including seven new species, and five 

 of them have strong affinities with known species of Europe or North 

 America. 



Fungi from New Caledonia. f — Ed. Fischer writes on the genus 

 Dictijvphora, one species of which was brought home by the Garasin and 

 Roux Expedition. The species D. indusiata is extremely variable, and 

 has been described under different names, but Fischer considers these 

 merely varieties. It is found in the Eastern tropics. 



Plant Diseases. — Malusio Turconi and Luigi MafifeiJ report on 

 diseases of plants examined in the cryptogamic laboratory of the Univer- 

 sity of Pavia. Leaves of Fraxinus sent from Mexico were found to be 

 attacked by a spot-hole disease which was caused by a fungus, Cercospora 

 Imnbricoides sp. n. The hyphae of the fungus penetrate the internal 

 tissues of the leaf and destroy them. 



Another disease, also from Mexico, attacking the branches of CastUloa 

 elastka, a caoutchouc plant, was examined. The fungus Nectria Castilloae 

 sp. n. is described at length. The mycelium had thoroughly invaded 

 the tissues, but the writers were unable to determine whether it had 

 caused the death of the branch. On branches of Morus from Roustchouk, 

 in Bulgaria, they found Stegayiosporium Kosaroffii sp. n. The fungus 

 was parasitic, but it was impossible owing to scarcity of material to give 

 a proper account of its effect on the host-plant. 



A. Paillier § has reported the devastation caused by mildew in the 

 vineyards of S.E. France during the past year. The fungus Plasmopara 

 vitkola spread in a manner never known before. The reason assigned 

 is the insufficient spraying due to lack of labour, along with the 

 imperfect cultivation of the vineyards ; the trouble was also aided by 

 the exceptionally hot, heavy weather. It was reckoned that the six 

 departments of the south of France, which yielded over 500 million 

 gallons of wine in 1914, would in consequence of the disease hardly 

 produce half or even one-third of that amount. 



F. Martinotti || records a severe outbreak of the same disease in 

 Piedmont. Weather conditions are chiefly blamed. The leaves were 

 everywhere successfully sprayed, and responded to treatment, but the 



* Bull. Roy. Bot. Gard. Kew, 1915, pp. 361-76 (2 pis.). 



t Sarasin and Roux, Nova Caledonia, Kreidel, Wiesbaden, 1914, pp. 3, 4. 



X Atti Bot. 1st. Pavia, xii. (1915) pp. 329-36 (1 pi.). 



§ La Vie Agric. Rur., v. No. 9 (1915) p. 159. See also Bull. Agric. Intell. Rome 

 V. (1915) p. 1261. 



II Giorn. Vin. Iial., xli. (1915) pp. 618-15. See also BuU. Agric. Intell. Rome, 

 V. (1915) p. 1261. 



