ZOOLOGY ANL» BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 415 



Anatomical Study of Java Fungus Galls.* — AV. Szafer describes 

 the effects produced by parasitic fuugi on the leaves of species of 

 Elsinoe, and a still fuller account of the galls on Diospijros due to 

 yEcidium rhytismoides. Pycnidia appear first developing in the palisade 

 tissue— there is tangential division in the pith cells, then the epidermis 

 cells on both sides of the leaf become covered with a black pigment, 

 while the outer walls increase in thickness. The deeper layers of the 

 increasing mesophyll become also thick-walled, as if filled with liquefied 

 stone-cells. This layer forms a protection for the deeply sunk fficidia. 

 As the pycnidia decay and fall out, the place is filled with thick-walled 

 sclerenchyma. These tissues split up and allow the escape of the 

 mature Eecidia, leaving a hole in the leaf. 



Studies of Fungi .t — J. Ramsbottom has published a review of work 

 done on the cytology of fungi during recent years. Many papers have 

 been pubhshe'd during the time, and the survey includes studies of 

 Phycomycetes, especially Entomophthoreas and Protomycetacege, one of 

 the most recent papers being by Jael in 1908, who worked at Taphridium 

 umhelUferarum. Eamsbottom finds that no decision can yet be made as 

 to the systematic position of this family. Most attention has been given 

 to the Ascomycetes. There is as yet little agreement among students as 

 to the interpretation of cytological phenomena in that class of fungi. 

 The controversy centres round the number and place of nuclear fusions 

 in the fertile tissues. Ramlow, one of the most recent students of the 

 subject, decided that in Ascobolus immersus there was no nuclear fusion 

 until the formation of the asci. A more recent paper by Killian on 

 Venturia nisequalis is somewhat vague. He found a trichogyne, and 

 copulation between that organ and the ascogoneous cells. Papers on 

 Uredineffi and Hymenogastrineae are also analysed ; the value of morpho- 

 logical studies for systematists is emphasized. 



Diseases of Plants. — W. H. Long J describes a disease of Pinus 

 ponderosa known as heart-rot or red-rot, but differing somewhat from 

 that disease, which is caused by Trametes Pini. The one he deals with 

 he names western red-rot, and finds three stages in its development : — 

 (1) the affected heart-wood remains firm, but shows reddish to dark 

 Ijrown discoloured areas ; (2) the heart-wood becomes deliquefied and 

 grey ; and (3) the heart-wood crumbles and disappears. The disease is 

 a wound disease, and the older the tree is the more liable it is to attack. 



Vittorio Peglion § has described the attack of Photinia serrulata by 

 an Oidiam sp., and the wintering of the fungus in the buds of the host- 

 plant ; those inhabited by the parasite developed very late, and the under 

 side of the bud-scales was covered with the conidiophores and conidia 

 of the Oidium. 



* Bull. Acad. Sci. Cracovie, ser. B, 1915, pp. 80-5 (4 pis.). See also Bot. 

 Centralbl., cxxsi. (1916) pp. 446-7. 



t Trans. Brit. Mycol. Soc, v. 2 (1916) pp. 271-303. 



% Mycologia, viii. (1916) pp. 178-80. 



§ Atti Real. Acad. Lincei, cccxiii. (1916) pp. 341-2. 



