546 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



Fungi of Tamari-Koji.* — J. Hanzawa writes on the preparation of 

 a Japanese sauce, Tamari-Soja, made from Soja-beans. The beans are 

 soaked and cooked, and then kneaded into balls. These are left free or 

 covered, but in any case soon develop a coating of fungi ; this consti- 

 tutes the Tamari-Koji. It is dried, then again placed in water and 

 allowed to ferment very slowly. The fungi concerned in these processes 

 have been examined and enumerated. From Tamari-Koji have been 

 isolated Mucor mucedo, Phycomyces nitens, PenidUium ylaucum, Glado- 

 spormm. lieriarum, and a species of ToruJa, but neither Aspergillus 

 Oryzse nor Rhizopus Tamari, which had l)eeii fouud by previous workers. 

 Various chemical notes are given. 



Exobasidium on Azalea. f — P. Baccarini has examined specimens of 

 Exoiasidium on cultivated Azalea iadica plants at the Cascine, Florence. 

 The dise:ise was first detected in Italy in 1907 in the neighbourhood of 

 Rome, and is fairly widespread over Europe. Considerable doubt has 

 ai-isen as to the determination of the fungus. Petri considered it 

 identical with E. discoideum, a North American species, but Baccarini 

 finds that the spore characters do not agree, and he suggests that it is 

 rather E. 'pentasporium, which is parasitic on Azalea indica in Japan. 

 This determination is of especial interest in enabling students to trace 

 the origin of the disease. Baccarini found that the basidia of his species 

 had five spores. The Roman specimens were identical with those collected 

 in Florence. 



Contributions to the knowledge of Cystidia. % — P- Demelius 

 gathers from his investigation of cystidia that in many instances they 

 serve to protect the hymenial tissue from minute insects. In Pantis 

 stypticus and Mycena cohserens they make it difficult for the insects to 

 penetrate between the gills. 



In many species they are variable in form, as in Gollyhia radicata, in 

 which he found normal clavate cystidia and also fusiform cystidia, the 

 latter without excretory products, such as oxalate of lime. 



American Fungi.§ — W. A. Murrill describes and gives coloured 

 illustrations of ten species of the larger fungi, some of them frequently 

 found in our own country, others confined to America. The micro- 

 scopic details are carefully set down, with the habitat and occurrence of 

 the funsrus. 



'^O' 



Fungus Culture. || — Louis Matruchot records his experience in 

 cultivating Lepiota procera, an edible species, from the spore. The 

 germinating spore produces a white branching mycelium which forms 

 into cord-like strands at an early stage. Cultures were made in caves 

 and in the open on tan and on hot-beds, such as are used for the culture 



* Mykol. Centralbl., i. (1912) pp. 163-6. 

 t Bull. Soc. Bot. Ital. (1912) pp. 127-8. 



X Verh. K.K. Zool. Bot. Cles. Wieu, Ixi. (1911) pp. 278-87, 322-32, and 378-94. 

 See also Bot. Centralbl., cxx. (1912) pp. 47-8. 

 § Mycologia, iv. (1912) pp. 163-9. 

 II Comptes Reudus, civ. (1912) pp. 226-9 (2 figs.). 



