3J;2 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



and Oidial Fruit-bodlos of Dacryomyces deliquescent,'''' in which it is 

 held that the oidial foria is Dacryomyces stcUntus Nees : the other on 

 *' Slugs as mycophagists " with a somewhat lighter touch ; Dr. V>. I). 

 MacCallum gives an account of some wood-staining fungi, and inci- 

 dentally conhrms Miinch's suggestion that Grapliiiim peniciUioidi's 

 Corda is a stage in the life-cycle of CeratostomelJa Picece Miinch ; 

 Dr. R. 1). St. John Brooks, the curator, writes on the "National Collec- 

 tion of T\'pe Cultures " housed at the Lister Institute (see Journ. Bot. 

 1921, p. 272) ; Mr. A. \l. Sanderson has notes on Malayan Mycetozoa, 

 containing much of ecological interest, and also a note on the para- 

 sitic habits of the plasmodium of JPhysarum viride var. rigidum ; 

 Miss Irene Mounce continues her studies in " Horaothallism and Hetero- 

 thallism in the genus Coprinus " — the problem is extremely compli- 

 cated and the simple ( + ) and ( — ) sex theory' apparenth' does not 

 hold in the Basidiomycetes as it is generally assumed to do in the 

 Mucorineie ; Mr. W. J. Dowson writes on the symptoms of wilting of 

 Michaelmas Daisies jDroduced by a toxin secreted by a Ceplicdo- 

 sjjorinm, in which he clearly shows that the wilt is not due to the 

 blocking of the xylem vessels by hyphal masses, but rather to the 

 action of a crystalloid toxin carried up by the transpiration current ; 

 Dr. H. Wormald describes a discomycete found on mummied Medlar 

 fruits and regards it as Sclerotiiiia Mespili, though there are slight 

 di:fforences from Schellenberg's account; Dr. Bayliss-Elliott continues 

 her series of studies in Discomycetes. The part contains two plates 

 and several text-figures. — J. R. 



The third part of vol. xxiv. of Confrihttions from tlie U.S. 

 national Herhariiun contains a key to the genus Diplostepliium, 

 by Dr. S. F. Blake : -11 species are recognised, of which 13 are 

 new — the latter are fuU}^ described, the diagnostic characters of the 

 others being given. Of eight of the new sj^ecies there are excellent 

 figures reproduced from type specimens. In part 4 of the same 

 volume Dr. Blake gives a list of the native names of plants of 

 Eastern Guatemala and Honduras, based on the data and specimens 

 collected by the botanists and foresters of the Economic Survey Mission 

 of 1919, with notes on the uses of the plants. The Latin and 

 vernacular names are convenientl}^ arranged in one list, with cross 

 references from the latter to the former. Some of the uses are 

 ^rather curious — e.g. the fruit of Chisia iitilis Blake — one of the 

 new species collected during the expedition — "cut across, is used by 

 the Indians to stamp clothes, making a 6 or 7-rayed starlike figure of 

 a permanent brown or blackish brown." 



We have more than once called attention to the exceedingly 

 useful summaries of " Kecent Advances in Science " which appear in 

 the quarterly review — Science Progress — edited by Sir Bonald Boss: 

 for " Botany " Dr. E. J. Salisbury is responsible, " Plant Physiology " 

 being treated separately by Prof. W. Stiles. We note with satisfac- 

 tion that the page-headings, which hitherto have been confined to 

 the title of the Beview, now relate to the subject-matter appearing 

 below them — a reform for which we have pleaded more than once ; 



