82 SUMMAllY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



drawn out. The author describes the nature of the territory worked over, 

 gives the list of species, 455 in all, and then considers them from an 

 ecological standpoint. He divides the territory into wood, meadow, 

 moor, and garden, classifies the plants according to the habitat on wood, 

 soil, etc., and particularizes the nature of the soil, with notes on the 

 number of times the more prominent species were collected. 



Contributions to Mycology.*— F. von Hohnel continues his criti- 

 cisms and emendations of the systematic work of previous mycologists, and 

 especially of the late P. Hennings. Many of the new genera and species 

 he finds to be synonyms of fungi described already. To Asterothyrium 

 microthyrioides P. Henn., the pycnidial form of one of the Asterineas, he 

 gives the name of Septothyrella, the previous name having been given to 

 a genus of lichens. In several instances von Hohnel finds that species 

 are worthy of generic rank, and for these fungi he has established as new 

 genera Haplodothis (Dothediace^e), Botryostroma (near to Munkiella), 

 FseudofiphsercUa (near to MontayneUa), Acanthotheciella (near to Ophio- 

 chsete), Dothiorina (Nectriode^), pycnidial form of GhlorospJpniwn, Thyro- 

 stoma and CJathrococmm (Hyphomycetes). The author discusses the 

 affinities of Ptycliogaster. He finds it is a form of Polyporus ulbidus, a 

 very variable fungus. 



Culture Studies of Fungi. f— Ceroid Stahel experimented with a 

 large series of fungi to test their capacity to assimilate free nitrogen. 

 He found that they grew well on agai-, but fared very badly on a sub- 

 stratum poor in nitrogen, such as silicilic acid. In the latter case there 

 was, in most of them, a comparatively large formation of oil-drops in the 

 liyphse. For a number of forms Stahel was able to prove the assimilation 

 of free nitrogen, and he comments on the economic importance of this 

 capacity, having regard to their wide-spread occurrence in the soil. 



Prussic Acid in Fungi4— J. Offner employed the method adopted 

 by Guignard to determine the presence of hydrocyanic acid in green 

 plants. He used paper that had been soaked in a solution of picric acid 

 and then in carbonate of soda — the sulphur-yellow colour thus produced 

 in the paper becomes brick-red when exposed to. prussic acid. He was 

 able, by means of this picro-soda paper to prove the existence of the acid 

 in Marasmim oreades, where it had been previously discovered, and in 

 Clitocybe wfi/ndibidiforniis. The reaction failed in several:other species 

 tested. 



Mushroom Cultivation in France. §— An account is given of the 

 growing of mushrooms in various parts of France, often in the suburbs 

 of large towns where old abandoned quarries of building stone, etc., are 

 utilized. The cultivation in the outskirts of Paris gives employment to 

 1500 workers, and more than supplies the needs of the city. It is found 

 that manure (horse dung) is difficult to obtain ; it should be full of 

 straw and of good quality. Peat-moss litter has not given good results. 



* SB. Akad. Wiss, Math.-Nafc. Kl. Wieu, cxx. (1911) pp. 879-484. 



t Jahrb. wiss. Bot., xlix. (1911) pp. 579-615. 



t Bull. Soc. Mycol. France, xxvii. (1911) pp 342-5. 



§ Journ. Board Agric, xviii. (1911) pp. G65-6. 



