86 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



but J. T. Barret, who has made a cultural study of the above species^ 

 finds that Schroter's view was correct that it belonged to the Lepto- 

 mitace^e. It possesses the same kind of constrictions in the filaments- 

 peculiar to that family, and similar pseudo-septa of *' cellulin rings."' 

 The species was found in water cultures made from garden soils, and 

 does not appear to be rare. There is a basal formation of rhizoidal 

 hyphse and a branching filament. Zoosporangia are produced laterally 

 and apicaUy near the tips of the branches, or they may be produced in 

 chains. The zoospores emerge by a number of papillse which swell out 

 into a vesicle into which the zoospores pass. These are typically uni- 

 ciliated. There are also resting zoosporangia which produce zoospores- 

 after several weeks' rest. Germination takes place by means of a germ- 

 tube branching out to form the rhizoids ; the body of the spore is the 

 basal cell of the upward growth. Nuclear division is probably mitotiCy. 

 with one large chromosome. 



Contribution to the Knowledge of the Genus Endogone* — Feodor 

 Bucholtz has made an extensive study of this genus of Fungi. He gives 

 an historical survey of the various species recorded since the year 1809, 

 when Endogone pisiformis was described by Link, up to the present day, 

 the number of species now amounting to seventeen. He describes his 

 material and method of working. Special attention was given to the 

 development of E. lactiflua, the specimens of which varied from * 4 cm. 

 in diameter to about 2 cm. His examination of the species led him ta 

 the conclusions that : — 1. E.lactifitiais a Phycomycete with non-septat& 

 multi-nucleate hyphae. Septa are formed only at the cutting off of the 

 gametes, and very seldom in the vegetative hyphae. 2. The sexually, 

 produced zygotes, enclosed in an outer layer of hyphse, form a hypogeeai 

 fruit body which may be called a zygosporocarp. 3. Fertilization is 

 heterogamous. 4. The gametes are terminal on the hyphse and are cut 

 off by a cross septum. 5. They become uninucleate by the passing over 

 of the other nuclei into the suspensor. 6. The male nucleus passes over 

 into the female cell, but does not fuse. 7. The zygote is an outgrowth 

 from the female gamete into which enter the contents of both gametes 

 including conjugate nuclei. 8. The zygote receives a special covering of 

 hyphae within which there is a thickish gelatinous layer. 9. Fusion of 

 the nuclei takes place on germination. 



Other species were examined, and their systematic position is discussed 

 and their relationship to Phycomycetes and Ascomycetes. Bucholtz 

 concludes from his observations that : — 1. The cytological conditions in 

 spore-formation in the sporangium of the Phycomycetes is impossible 

 without intermediate stages. 2. In the Ascomycetes a peculiar fertiliza- 

 tion process has been demonstrated, though frequently it is reduced or 

 rudimentary ; in any case the ascus-formation is intimately connected 

 with the process. 3. Though multinucleate mycelium is characteristic 

 for most of the higher fungi, it can hardly be considered as sharply 

 differentiating between higher and lower fungi, since there are inter- 

 mediate stages between the two. 



The whole question of the relationship of Phycomycetes and Ascomy- 



* Beih. Bot. Centralbl., xxix. (1912) pp. 147-225 (8 pis.). 



