306 RECOBD OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



The walls of the cells of the spongy envelope are commonly 

 marked with spiral bands or other thickenings. The outermost layer 

 of cells differs from the rest, and gives birth to hairs. 



Beneath the spongy envelope, differentiated into several layers or 

 not (in Vanilla consisting of a single layer), is a stratum differing 

 from it altogether in its origin, and treated by some writers as the 

 true epidermis, the endoderm of Oudemans. 



M. Prillieux regards the entire velamen as corresponding to the 

 epidermis, and its subjacent layer, the endoderm, to a hypodermal 

 layer. The spiral cells of the spongy envelope are of an undoubtedly 

 suberous character. 



B. CRYPTOGAMIA. 



Fungi. 



Luminous Fungus from the Andaman Islands.* — Mr. Berkeley 

 records the receipt of an extremely luminous agaric, of a small size 

 but exceeding in brilliancy anything which has hitherto been ob- 

 served. The cause of the luminosity is at present, he believes, quite 

 unknown. Even the opportunities of examining the large olive-tree 

 agaric of the South of Europe have been without result. The only 

 instances of luminosity which have occurred at home have been con- 

 fined to mycelia in conjunction with decaying wood or fermenting 

 leaves ; but in the numerous cases which have occurred in tropical 

 climates there has been no question as to decomposition. The 

 fungus is quite young, and scarcely fully developed. The name and 

 characters of the species, which is certainly new to science, are given 

 as follows : — Agaricus (Pleurotus) Emerici, n. s. — Pileus at first 

 spathulate, quite smooth, dark brown ; at length suborbicular, soon 

 changing to white, with a slight tinge of yellow ; minutely virgate ; 

 stem obsolete ; gills of the same colour as the j^ileus, narrow inter- 

 stices smooth. Pileus about \ inch across, attached behind without 

 any stem, either nearly flat, or helmet-shaped, emitting a most brilliant 

 light, the entire substance being luminous. The species was found by 

 Major Emeric S. Berkeley. 



Locularia ribesicola.t — It had already been suggested by S. 

 Schulzer that this organism, placed among the Sphaeronemeae, was the 

 pycnidium or early form of an ascomycetous Fungus ; and this sus- 

 picion he is now able to confirm, identifying it with the genus Lophio- 

 stoma. This genus is now known in three distinct stages of develop- 

 ment : — 1, the microstylospore-form or Locularia ; 2, barren, the 

 nucleus consisting merely of hyphse ; and 3, the perfect ascophorous 

 form. 



White Bilberries.!— J. Schroeter has observed in wood clearings in 

 Baden a number of plants of Vaccinium Myrtillus with white berries. 

 As a rule, all the plants in a patch were affected in this way, and the 



* ' Gardeners' Chronicle,' xiii. (1880) p. 240. 

 t 'Oesterr. bot. Zeitschr.,' xxix. (1879) p. 393. 

 X 'Hedwigia.' xviii. (1S79) p. 177. 



