1899.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 109 



hands by Mr. W. Finger, of ]Milwaukee, Wis. A pair of loug- 

 stalked, smooth and shining leaves seemed to proceed from a root 

 stock of Uepat'wa acuiiloba D. C. They were strikingly suggestive 

 of some undescribed species of Ranunculus. The collector was sus- 

 picious that some other plant had man- 

 aged to force its leaves through the root 

 stock of Hepatica, as instances of this 

 behavior in some plants have been 

 known. Though nothing pointing to 

 this could be ascertained, the specimens 

 were sent to me under an impression that 

 there must have been some such occur- 

 rence. The leaf-blades, however, showed, 

 by the slightly developed fructification, 

 that the whole character of the leaf had 

 been changed through the medium of a 

 minute fungus, apparently closely related 

 to an CEcld'mm, as had been found con- 

 nected Avith the Euphorbia. 



In the paper on E\q>horhia cited, I 

 ventured the proposition, as deduced 

 from the observations recorded, that 

 " certain phases of nutrition brought 

 about by the attack of a fungus may 

 change specific characters." The expe- 

 rience here related not only affirms this 

 proposition, but indicates that the 

 changes induced follow definite lines. 

 In the Euphorbia the result of the opera- 

 tion of the fungus was especially marked 

 by the elongation of the nodes and the 

 total suppression of the hair that densely 

 attacked. In this case we have again the hairy 

 character of Hepatica totally obliterated, and the petiole elongated 

 in a striking manner. 



In view of the modern discoveries of symbiotic relations between 

 algffi and fungi in the development of lichens, and of species of 

 fungi in connection with thejife-histories of other plants, there can 

 be no extravaL'^auce in the suggestion that in some manner as yet 



Fig. 1. 

 clothes the species 



