BOTANY. 



403 



Fungi.— Tv^o important papers by De Bary relating to Pcronosporece 

 are Untersuchungen iiher die Peronosporeen imd SaproJegnieen^ and Zur 

 Kenntnlss der Peronosporeen. The first-named paper forms the fourth 

 series of De Bary and Woroniu's Beitrdge zur MorpJioIogie und Physio, 

 logie der Pike, and inchidea 145 quarto pages, with 6 lithographic 

 plates. It is devoted especially to the consideration of the reproductive 

 process in the two orders named above as illustrated by the genera 

 Pgthium, Phytophtliora^ Saprolegnia, and Achlya. In the case of the 

 Saprolegniece, De Bary thinks that in forms where oogonia are found with- 

 out male pollinodia they must be considered as representing a distinct 

 apogamous species, and not as temporary variations of bisexual species. 

 At the end is a chapter on the basis of a natural classification of fungi. 

 The second paper of De Barj-'s, which appeared in the Botanische Zeitung, 

 takes up more in detail than in the previously-named paper the develop- 

 ment of certain species of Pyf/»'j/?7i and Phytophthora^ which, according to 

 De Bary, have a much wider diffusion and inhabit a greater variety of host 

 ])laats than has been sui)posed. The fourth part of Brefeld's Botanische 

 Untersuelinngen iibcr Schimmelpihe includ<.'S 11 articles on different 

 mycological subjects, in the last of which, the Comparative Morphology 

 o/Fungij he gives his views on classification, and adopts the view which 

 is beginning to prevail in some quarters that the larger and, as they 

 have been supposed, more highly developed forms of fungi are in reality 

 degenerate non-sexual forms descended from sexual ancestors. The 

 other papers relate to the mode of making microscopic cultures the de- 

 velopment of different species of Mttoorini, Ascoinycetes, &c. In his Bei- 

 trag zur Biologie der Mncorineen, Wortmann shows that the bending of 

 the sporaugial stalks and mycelium is not dependent on a force called 

 somatotropismus by Van Tieghem, but on the varying amounts of 

 moisture in the substratum. The Relationship of JEcidium Berberidis 

 to Puccinia Grayninis is discussed by C. B. Plowright, in Grevillea, 

 of December, 1881, where he gives the results of a number of cult- 

 ures made with the object of determining whether there is a genetic 

 connection between the forms mentioned, and he considers that his 

 experiments do not show in a conclusive way that there is any such 

 connection. In the contributions from the Carlsberg Laboratory, Co- 

 jjeuhagen, Hansen has a paper on the Physiologic et morphologic des fir- 

 mcnts alcooliqiies, the principal species studied being Saccharomyces api- 

 culatm. The fungus abounds on small fruits, as cherries, gooseberries, 

 «S:c., in summer, and falls or is washed to the ground in autumn, where 

 it remains tlirough the winter enduring considerable cold without injury. 

 It produces alcoholic fermentation, but only to a small extent. 



Descriptive works on fungi have been very numerous in 1881. Re- 

 lating to this country we may mention, in the Torrey Bulletin, papers 

 by Ellis on Xerc Species of North American Fungi, principally from New 

 Jersey, and New Ascomycetous Fungi; Ellis and Harkness on Neio Species 

 of American Fungi; Peck on Tico Neic Species of Fungi, with a plate of 



