121 



Mr. J. W. Reed read a paper " On the vEcidium stage of 

 Uromyces pisi on Eitphorhia CTjparissias L." 



The President said he was sure that even those members of 

 the Club who were not students of the micro-fungi would be 

 agreed as to the great interest which must attach to the paper 

 read by Mr. Heed, and which would no doubt afford abundant 

 material for that kind of discussion which was specially desired 

 at their meetings. The micro-fungi were extremely difficult sub- 

 jects to deal with, and although he had not himself taken them 

 up as a study, he learnt a good deal about them which greatly 

 interested him from the Rev. Mr. Vise, who some time ago paid 

 a great deal of attention to the subject. 



Mr. E. T. Newton congratulated both the Club and Mr. Reed 

 upon the very interesting paper they had just heard read, which 

 was just the kind of paper they wanted. He knew nothing of 

 the subject, and therefore wanted to ask some questions. He 

 could follow the account of these spores, but there were some 

 other points which he should like made clear, and would ask if 

 Mr. Reed had seen anything which might be regarded as 

 analogous to a sexual process. If there were anything of this 

 kind (which, it seems, Mr. Massee had pointed out) it would be 

 a very important fact. Another point was, supposing they 

 had such a thing as a perpetual summer, would the growth be 

 continuous all the year round 1 This at present was not the case, 

 and they found that in the autumn a different kind of spores 

 began to be produced, such as were wanted for the production of 

 new plants after the winter was passed. Possibly the reason was 

 the same as what produced those remarkable changes amongst 

 the Aphides, which so long as they were kept warm went on 

 producing asexual offspring, but as soon as the temperature fell 

 sexual individuals began to be produced, 



Mr. Groves said he had not made a special study of the Fungi, 

 and had gained much information from Mr. Reed's interesting 

 paper. Cases of alternation of generation were particularly 

 attractive to him. In the Chctracece^ among which he was most 

 especially working, the alternation of generations existed in a most 

 rudimentary form. He had seen a very useful series of specimens 

 which Prof. Stewart was preparing for the College of Surgeons 

 Museum to illustrate " alternation of generations," and among 

 them Pitccinia graminis, to which Mr. Reed had referred. It 



