Fossil Fungi. 97 



out variation through the long period that separates the 

 present epoch from that ancient time.'^ 



"There are likewise some species of bacteria which, he 

 thinks, should be admitted as existing contemporaneously 

 with the most ancient vegetation. They are the ones that 

 produce in the soil chemical changes necessary for the nutri- 

 tion of plants. 



"Such is the bacterium of nitrification, of Schloesing and 

 Miintz, that transforms ammoniacal salts into nitrates, and 

 thus gives to vegetation nitrogen in a form that permits of its 

 assimilation. The importance of this has been demonstrated 

 by the experiments of Duclaux ; he has proved that when 

 seeds of plants are grown in a soil deprived of bacteria, there 

 are obtained slender, wretched specimens, as feeble as those 

 that had been grown in pure water. "t 



[Several other papers describing fossil fungi, have been 

 overlooked by Dr. Meschinelli, besides those mentioned above 

 by M. Ferry. One of these was by Prof. P. Martin Duncan, 

 in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. t In this 

 paper attention is called to certain canals occurring in recent 

 corals, to which the name of Achlya penetrans is given. Studies 

 made of corals from the Silurian and Tertiary formations, 

 showed the presence of similar or identical canals. The 

 modern coral parasite is regarded as the descendant, with 

 little or no modification, of the early fossil form. 



In 1879 a paper was read by Messrs. Cash and Hick before 

 the Yorkshire Geological and Polytechnic Society, and was 

 publishedintheirTransactions.il In this paper were described 

 some fungoid bodies found in the stems of ferns. Many 

 hyphae were present, and these were observed to be constricted 



*Van Tieghera. Siir le ferment butyrique {Bacillus amylobaclen a Vepoque de la 

 hoiiille. I'Comp. rend, des Sci. de 1' ac. des Sci., 1879, vol. Ixx.xix, p. H02. M. Mi'iUer, 

 without going so far back, has found the filaments o( Lepto/hrix buccalis in the 

 tartar of the teeth of Egyptian mumniies. \Der einjtuss cier micro-or ganismen 

 ail/ die Carie dry Zahiic. Archiv. fur experim. Palhotogie, vol. xiv, 1882. 



" fDuclaux. Sur la germination dans itn sol riche en matieres organique, 011 

 exempt des microbes. Comp. rend, de I'Acad. des Sci., vol. c, 1886, p. 68." 



XOn some thallophytes parasitic within recent Madreporaiia. Proc. Roy. Soc. 

 London, vol. xxv, 1866, pp. 17-18, 238-257. 



||Vol. vii, 1879, pp. 113-121. Also noticed in Science Gossip, vol. xvi, I^ondon, 

 1880, p. 67. 



