514 SUMMAKY OF CUKKEiNT KESEAKCHES RELATING TO 



Discomycetes. Some of the species have been rediscovered and renamed, 

 among them PhseaiigeUa Em^oetri. Phillips' descriptions are now re- 

 published. 



E. AYakefield* has made a special study of Corticium, and she pub- 

 lishes a preliminary account of several species, with an account of the 

 habit of growth, microscopical structure, etc. The Corticese are diffi- 

 cult fungi to deal with, as they vary very considerably according to 

 the age and vigour of the plant. The microscopic structure may also 

 show great variation within the genus ; in many of them structures 

 almost like the cystidia of Feniophora are formed. 



J. Bayliss Elliott f has described a new fungus, Sigmoideomyces 

 clathroides, a species with conidiophores and globose colourless conidia, 

 and also a loose peridium of sterile branching hyph* which suggests a 

 Oymnoascus ; it might possibly be a conidial stage of that fungus. 

 The new species appeared in the laboratory in boxes of soil contain- 

 ing a dead worm ; it was never found in soil which did not contain 

 worms. 



J. W. Ellis % has given a list of new British microscopic fungi col- 

 lected by him in the neighbourhood of Cheshire — on pine-scales, twigs, 

 leaves, etc., of various trees or herbs. Two species new to science are 

 included. 



A. Lorrain Smith and J. Ramsbottom § publish lists of new or rare 

 British fungi recorded or discovered during the previous year. A 

 considerable number are new species determined by the writers ; others 

 have been recorded by various workers in the course of researches on 

 various aspects of fungoid life — soil fungi, plant diseases, beehive fungi, 

 etc. In all cases references are given with habitat, etc. 



A list of large and some microscopic fungi is contributed by 

 Carleton Rea || of species new to Britain or new to science. Diagnoses 

 of all the species are published, with occasional biological notes. 



Insect-destroying Fungi. f — Olav J. 0. Sopp has established as a 

 new species Cordyceps norvegica, a fungus that he found destroyed many 

 insects, flies, wasps, etc., not only in the laboratory but in nature, where 

 it is particularly fatal to certain larvse (Kiefernspinner). The fungus 

 has a phenomenal power of dissemination, as there are numerous fruiting 

 forms with abundance of spores. . Sopp was able to cultivate the fungus 

 in the laboratory, and to observe the behaviour at each stage of develop- 

 ment. No other fungus, he considers, has such destructive power on 

 insects. It grows also in the soil, and in any epidemic of caterpillars, 

 etc., it would be well worth while to infect the soil. As it is these 

 insects are kept down by the fungus, and a season unfavourable to its 

 growth means a great increase of the insects specially subject to attack. 

 The Gordyccpn form of the fungus reaches a height of about eight inches 

 and is f in. thick at the clavate end. It is a briUiant orange colour. 



* Trans. Brit. Mycol. Soc, iv. (1913) pp. 113-20 (Ipl.). 

 t Trans. Brit. Mycol. Soc, iv. (1913) pp. 121-4 (1 pL). 

 X Trans. Brit. Mycol. Soc, iv. (1913) pp. 124-6. 

 § Trans. Brit. Mycol. Soc, iv. (1913) pp. 1G5-85. 

 II Trans. Brit. Mycol. Soc, iv. (1913) pp. 186-98 (2 col. pis.). 

 t Skr. Vidensk. Krist. (1911, 2) 56 pp. (5 pis. and 5 figs.). 



