240 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



was necessary in the cultures to induce the sporalation of a yeast and 

 the formation of perithecia in Aspergillus. He has repeated his experi- 

 ments. He grew the Aspergillus on culture media with and w^ithout the 

 addition of bacteria. When these were absent conidiophores and conidia 

 were formed ; perithecia very slowly and very rarely. With the bacteria 

 present there was a ready and abundant formation of perithecia. 



A. L. S. 



Drain-blocking Fungus. — A. Lorraix Smith {Trans. Brit. 31ycol. 

 Soc.^ 1920, 6, 262-3). The writer describes the circumstances in which 

 the fungus Fomes ulmarius was found blocking a sewer 30 ft. below 

 ground in the City of London. There was no elm-tree in the vicinity, 

 nor any evident nutriment for the fungus, but the gap in the pipes by 

 which it had penetrated was evident. A. L. S. 



Elementary Notes on the Morphology of Fungi.— A. H. Church 



{Bot. Memoirs, Oxford, No. 7, 1920, 1-29). Church states his aim in 

 the opening sentence : — " Systematy includes the consideration of the 

 Progression of Plant Life from first ' origins ' to the condition of 

 present vegetation," etc. He thus traces the origin and development 

 of fungi from their algal ancestry in the sea, and, as polyphyletic, from 

 a wide range of transmigrant alga3. All the groups from bacteria 

 onwards are discussed. He closes with a consideration of the various 

 types of symbiosis between fungi and other plants. A. L. S. 



Notes and Additions to the Fungus Flora of Tasmania. — 



L. RoDAVAY {Papers and Proc. Roy. Soc. Tasmania, 1920 (1919), 110-6). 

 The author gives a series of notes on well-known fungi and diagnoses 

 of several new species. We read that Collyhia lutyracea is common, 

 chiefly amongst wattle-trees, that Boletus badius only appears under 

 introduced pine-trees, etc. There is a new species of Spragueola, only 

 one other species from America being known ; also two new subterranean 

 fungi,, Paurocotylis niveus and Sphserosoma tasmanica. A. L. S. 



Influence of Illuminating Gas on Bacteria and Fungi. — C. A. 

 LuDWiG {Amer. Journ. Bof., 1918, 5, 1-31). The paper deals with 

 the toxicity of coal gas. In high concentration all bacterial oi 

 fungoid growth is checked or wholly stopped. Although different 

 species are differently affected, on the whole the vigour of any strain 

 is reduced by prolonged cultivation under the influence of the gas. 

 The effect is not due to any one of the constituents, but is probably 

 caused by the sum of the small effects of each plus the deficient 

 oxygen content. The results, however, indicate that the gas incident- 

 ally present in any laboratory is quite harmless. A. L. S. 



Upon the Visibility of Spore Dissemination in Fomes pinicola. — 

 R. E. Stone {Trans. Brit. Mycol. Soc, 1920, 6, 29;5)- The writer 

 cites the experience of A. H. BuUer, who had recorded seeing the 

 discharge of spores from Polyporus squamosus^, he saw the same kind 

 of discharge from the under side of the fruit-body of Fo?nes pinicola ; 

 the spores streamed out and drifted away in the slight air currents. 



A. L. S. 



