ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICEOSCOPY, ETC. 547 



of mushrooms. The cave cultures gave the best results. Spores sown 

 in October 1910 bore fully formed Lejnotse in September 1911, and 

 growth continued regularly for a year, the pilei appearing in the end of 

 January, April, and June. Matruchot's successful culture is of consider- 

 able economic importance as well as of great scientitic interest, very few 

 Basidiomycetes having been raised from the spore. 



Micromycetes in Piedmont.* — Alberto Noelli has made a study of 

 the microscopic fungi in Piedmont, especially of those that grow at high 

 altitudes. He gives microscopic details of many of the species of 

 Uredinea3 and Pyrenomycetes, and he describes a new species, Lepto- 

 sphseria ranimcnloides, parasitic on the leaves of Bupleurum rammculoides, 

 and a variety of IVkhosphseria pllosa, parasitic on Saxifraga musroides. 

 The new forms are illustrated by figures in the text. 



Artificial Cultures of Ascobolus and Aleuria.t — B. 0. Dodge 

 describes a very large SYtecies, Ascobolus nim/nifirus, v^^hich measures from 

 0-5 to 2 '7 cm. in diameter. It appeared on horse-dung cultures in a 

 Wardian case in New York City. In a very hot room colourless spores 

 only were formed, but in a cooler atmosphere they became purple. A 

 parasitic species was found on the mycelium but no spores were found. 

 Aleuria uinhrina was cultivated on agar medium made up with an extract 

 of heated soil. The fungus grows normally on burned places. 



New Fungi from La Cote d'Ivoire.| — A. E. Lechmere describes a 

 species of Fionnotes, and a new genus of Pyrenomycetes, Peristomium 

 desmosporum. The latter in the course of development produced an 

 oidial form, a Verticillmm, and a perithecium belonging to the Chseto- 

 miacea?, though it has no external appendages. 



Influence of Heat on Fungi. § — E. Paque records his observations as 

 to the effect on the growtli of fungi of the hot summer of 1911. 

 Hymenomycetes were rare owing to the dryness of the soil ; but the 

 minute forms that grow on wood, leaves, etc., were extremely abundant. 

 Many plants were examined that were infected with Erysiphacefe, and 

 it was found that there was an exceptional production of perithecia. 

 The oak mildew alone produced only the Oidium form. 



Diseases of Timber. || — C. Brick found pycnidia and spores of Zythia 

 resinse growing on worked wood forming dark spots and penetrating 

 iiito the resin canals. It had previously been found on the resin of 

 pine trees. 



P. Spaulding % describes the enormous mischief wrought Ijy Lenzites 



* Nuov. Giorn. Bot. Ital., xix. (1912) pp. 393-411 (3 figs.). 



t Mycologia, iv. (1912) pp. 218-21 (2 pis.). 



i Comptes Rendus, civ. (1912) pp. 178-9. 



§ Bull. Soc. Roy. Bot. Belg., xlviii. (1912) pp. 97-9. 



i Jahrb. Vereinig. Aug. Bot., viii. (1910) p. 164. See also Aun. Mycol., x. 

 ^1912) p. 338. 



^ U.S. Dept. Agric. Bull. No. 214 (1911) 46 pp. (4 pis.). See also Auu. Mvcol., 

 s. (1912) p. 839. 



