NOTES AND MEMORANDA. 315 



of the tubes on the under surface, where their extremities form the 

 basiclia and basidiospores, others bend upwards to the upper surface of 

 the pileus, above which their delicate hyaline extremities project to 

 the extent of from • 025 to • 05 mm., and then divide into two or 

 three branches, each of which produces a spore at its extremity. In 

 the species named, these spores resemble in every respect the ordinary 

 purple-brown spores produced within tlic tubes on the under side of the 

 pileus, while in other sj)ecies they present some difference. The 

 sporophores are usually somewhat crooked, and after producing the 

 spores, disappear completely, leaving no trace behind, the spores 

 alone remaining as a reddish-brown coating on the upj)er side of the 

 pileus. 



Change of Colour in the Spores of Fungi. — Schulzer records* 

 a singular instance of the spores of a fungus which he considered 

 closely allied to Agaricus {^Hyplioloma) cascus, Fr., changing their 

 colour beneath his eyes from purple-brown to black. The observation 

 was made while testing the correctness of Fries's statement that the 

 colour of fungus-spores appears to vary according to the colour of the 

 substance on which they lie, a statement he was unable to confirm. 



Fungi found within the Shell of the Egg. — Dr. 0. E. E. Zimmer- 

 mann contributes to the ' Bericht der naturw. Gesellsch. in Chemnitz 

 (1878) a complete history of the various fungi which induce jiutrefac-' 

 tion of the egg. The attack of the fungus is sometimes indicated by 

 small green, yellow, yellowish red, or brown spots on the shell, with 

 internal projections into the albunien ; or by yellow or greenish-yellow 

 spots in the albumen itself, which then becomes a slate-coloured fluid, 

 while the yolk passes into tough blackish lumps, accompanied by the 

 offensive odour of sulphuretted hydrogen. These changes are caused 

 by various fungi. Frequently there is found only a sterile thin-walled 

 colourless or thick-walled olive-green mycelium, the cells of which 

 readily separate from one another, or a mueor-myeelium (probably 

 Mucor racemosus) propagating by gemmation. Among fructifying 

 fungi, chiefly in the air-chamber at the larger end, were found Peni- 

 cillium glaucum, Aspergillus glaucus, Stysanus stemonitis, Echinobotryum 

 atrum, Mucor stolonifer, a Botrytis, and a new species, Macrosporhim 

 verruculosum, as well as bacteria, especially Bacterium termo and Ba- 

 cillus suhtilis, together with torula-cells, and others similar to those of 

 Oidium lactis.'\ 



Fungi parasitic on the Cabbage. — Under the title ' Plasmo- 

 diophora Brassicfe, Urheber der Kohlpflanzen - Hernie,' | Woronin 

 publishes a treatise, illustrated with six plates, in which he describes 

 the cause of the " club " disease so common on the root of the cabbage. 

 It is a fungus, to which he gives the name Plasmodiophora, the simplest 

 form hitherto known of the Myxomycetes. It consists of a minute 

 mass of protoplasm or plasmodium, which is never enclosed within 

 a cellulose envelope, but breaks up eventually into a great number of 



* ' Flora,' xxxvi. (1878) 471. 



t ' Hedwi^ia,' xvii. (1878) 190. 



X ' Jahrl. f. wiss. Bot.,' xi. (1878) 548. 



