686 SCIENTIFIC RECORD FOR 1883. 



genous flowers in Nemophila maculata. Lnpatiem pallida, Opuntia lepti- 

 caulis, and Viola sarmentosa. Urban describes the fertilization of Rulin- 

 (jia in Bericht. Deutsch. Bot. Gesell., and a large number of facts with re- 

 gard to the fertilization of Butacece in a paper on that order in Jahrb. 

 Bot. Gart. Berlin. 



BACTERIA AND FERMENTS. 



We can in this connection mention merely some of the more impor- 

 tant papers on bacteria which are of interest from a botanical point 

 of view. By far the greater part of the very numerous papers on these 

 organisms have treated the subject from a medical or sanitary stand- 

 point. Zopf's Die Spaltpilzc, originally published in the EncyMopcedie 

 der Naturwissemchoften, is a clear and well-illustrated treatise which 

 gives the botanical characters and what is known of the development 

 of the principal Schizomycetes which produce chemical or pathogenic 

 changes. Miller describes and figures in the Bericht. Deutsch. Gesell. 

 a large form, Leptothrix gigantea, found on the teeth, and in the same 

 journal Kurth describes a new Bacterium Zopfii with coccus and bacte- 

 rium forms. The Am. Naturalist gives a description of some pathogenic 

 Micrococci by Burrill, reprinted from the Beport Illinois Museum. 



The report of the Carlsberg Laboratory has an article by E. Hansen on 

 the Physiology and Morphology of Alcoholic Ferments. He studied espe- 

 cially the endospores of different ISaccharomycetes which, although they 

 cannot be distinguished from one another by morphological characters, 

 yet differ in the time required for germination when exposed to differ- 

 ent temperatures. He gives tables showing by curves the maxima 

 and minima at different temperatures. The forms called by Pasteur 

 lorulce resemble species of tiaceharomyecs, but as they do not produce 

 ascospores they are considered by Hansen to be distinct from that genus. 

 Hansen's paper concludes with an account of some secondary injurious 

 changes which take place in beer from the growth of certain ferments. 



THALLOPHYTES. 



Fungi. — The fifth part of Brefeld's Botanische Untersnehungen treats 

 of Ustilaginece, and he has carefully studied the mode and conditions of 

 germination of the spores of several genera. The form of germination 

 depends largely ou the nature of the medium in which the spores may 

 be at the time. Under certain circumstances .veastlike cells are pro- 

 duced and these may be propagated indefinitely. Even in other orders, 

 as shown in Fxoascus, yenstlike germinations occur, and Brefeld is not 

 willing to accept the view that species of Saccharomyces are distinct, but 

 he regards them as derived from other fungi. The development iff some 

 anomalous Ustilaginece has been studied by Cornu who, in the Ann. 

 Sci. Nat. describes and figures some new genera distinguished by the 

 mode of germination and anatomical peculiarities. The development of 

 the anomalous genus Graphiola has been studied by Ed. Fischer, whose 



