INVERTEBRATA, CRYPTOGAMIA, MIOROSCOPY, ETC. 127 



Within this, in the middle of the sclerotium, is a bundle of a loose, 

 small-celled tissue, composed of very distinct hyphee interwoven in 

 an irregular manner. The cells of these hyph?e are elongated and 

 cylindrical, and also contain drops of oil. This bundle passes through 

 the ergot in the direction of its longer axis, and upwards into the so- 

 called cap. From it proceed several lamella, which pass through 

 the sclerotium radially towards the periphery through its whole 

 length. The large-celled and small-celled tissues may together be 

 treated as a medullary tissue, which is surrounded on the outside by 

 two or three layers of cells with dark-brown cell-wall, constituting 

 the so-called cortex. This is transparent only when the section is 

 extremely thin. 



Vine-rot (Pourridie de la vigne).* — The results of recent inves- 

 tigations of this disease have been communicated by M. Millardet to 

 the Societe des Sciences of Bordeaux. It is well known to viticul- 

 turists under the names "pourridie," "champignon blanc," and 

 " blanquet " ; and in the department of Lot-et-Garonne makes its ap- 

 pearance regularly in vineyards planted on oak-clearings after about 

 twenty years. It presents the appearance of whitish strings, irregu- 

 larly and often elegantly ramifying, exposed on the removal of the 

 bark of the stem, and especially of the root. 



The organism has usually been assigned to the fungoid form 

 known as Bhizomorpha, an opinion in which M. Millardet agrees. 

 The effects on the plant affected are very similar to those of the 

 phylloxera. The author disputes the assertion of M. Boutin that the 

 presence of phylloxera is marked by the inversion of the normal 

 cane-sugar of the plant. He states that both these diseases are accom- 

 panied at first by a notable diminution in the proportion of sugar con- 

 tained in the part affected, subsequently by its complete disappearance. 

 The diminution of the sugar is proportional to the degree of alteration 

 in the part affected, and its disappearance is always complete when 

 the tissue is penetrated by the mycelium of the parasite, these being 

 the necessary conditions in the cane both of the i)hylloxcra and of the 

 vine-rot. 



Asci in a Polyporus.t — The Ecv. M. J. Berkeley explained at 

 the last conversazione of the Woolliope Club, at Hereford, the cir- 

 cumstances under which he found the pores of a Polyporus fringed 

 at the margin with asci containing spores. The specimens had been 

 forwarded also to Mr. C. E. Broome, and he confirmed the observa- 

 tion in all essential particulars. The asci were perfectly naked, and 

 there is not the slightest reason for the assumption that they bore any 

 relationship to Hypomyccs, or even that they were parasitic in any 

 other manner. There was every appearance of their being a develop- 

 ment of an abnormal character, of the Polyporus itself. The expla- 

 nation was offered in tlie hope of inducing further rcseai'ch in the 

 same direction, so as to obtain some clue to the cause of a phenomenon 

 BO unusual and unexpected. 



♦ 'Rev. IiiUrnat. Sci.,' iv. (1879) p. 373. 



t 'GanKiura' Cliroiiiclo,' Nov. IG, 1870 ; ' (ircvilloft,' viii. (1871)) p. 78. 



