ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 233 



in order to see if the development had any affinity with spore formation 

 in a sporangium. The author describes his methods and cultures, and 

 finally gives a summary of the points determined : — Spore formation 

 proceeds as in the eight-spored ascus ; there is successive nuclear division 

 until the final number is reached, then the spore is delimited, as in other 

 species, by the astral hairs which bend back and fuse to form the spore 

 membrane. There is therefore no indication of any phylogenetic rela- 

 tionship between the ascus and the sporangium of the Phycomycetes. 



A. L. S. 



Audibility of Spore Discharge in Helvella elastica. — R. E. 



Stone {Trans. Brit. MycoL Soc, 1920, 6, 294). The writer brought to 

 his laboratory a basket full of these fungi, and the following day he 

 detected a hissing sound at a distance of five to six feet. On lifting 

 the cover of the basket he noted a spore-puff with a distinct hiss. The 

 puffs occurred at intervals and always accompanied by a hissing sound. 



A. L. S. 



Diplocystis and Broomeia. — I. B. Pole Evans and Averil M. 

 BoTTOMLEY {Trans. Roy. Soc. S. Africa, 1919, 7, 189-92, 5 pis.). The 

 authors describe a new species, Diplocystis Junoclii, sent from Portuguese 

 E. Africa, and called by the natives " Fole da mangapfi," viz. the 

 tobacco of the hawk. The authors compare Diplocystis with Broomeia ; 

 the two genera are nearly related, but differ in the form of the stroma, 

 which, in the latter, is thick and somewhat columnar, while in Diplocystis 

 it is saucer-hke. It has been stated that Broomeia congreyata grows on 

 rotten wood, but the authors find it on living trees of Acacia karoo, and 

 the trees thus associated were gumming freely from the main stem. 



A. L. S. 



Furrows and Germinating Pores.— J.-E. Chenantais {Bull. Soc. 

 3Iycol. France, 1920, 36, 29-33, figs.). The writer criticizes as a 

 character of taxonomic importance the presence of a pore or furrow in 

 spores of Xylariaceai. Yincens had published a paper which insisted on 

 the importance of the furrow as indicating relationship. Chenantais 

 considers that the furrow is simply a mode of dehiscence in brown thick- 

 walled spores, and may occur in unrelated genera. A. L. S. 



Development of the Geoglossacess. — G. H. Duff (Bot. Gaz., 1920, 

 69, 341-6.) The writer traces the growth of Gudonia lutea and 

 Spathularia velutipes from the earliest stages. He finds at the centre of 

 a minute cushion of hyphse certain filaments conspicuous by their size 

 and staining qualities ; they are the precursors of coiling procarps 

 which arise from them at a later stage. In Spatliuluria generative 

 hypha^ appear much later, as do the procarps. In Gudonia the procarp 

 produces " typical multiseptate trichogynes which penetrate the envelope, 

 projecting into the air for a short distance. Spermogonia and spermatia 

 are entirely lacking, and it is not thought that the trichogynes are 

 functional organs." The writer contrasts this development with that of 

 the Gladonise among lichens as described by Nienburg. A. L. S. 



