600 RECOED OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



which its protoi)lasinic contents pass. The female cell resembles a 

 sporangium, bnt has no perforating filament. After fertilization the 

 oosphere develops into a yellowish brown double- walled oospore, the 

 epispore of which is covered with elegant spines. 



The "Carolo vero " and "Carolo bianco" of the Rice.* — The 

 cause of these two diseases to which rice is subject is described by 

 Professor Garovaglio in a i)ami)hlet entitled ' Del Brusone o Carolo 

 del Kiso.' It is a fungus belonging to the genus Pleosjjora, to 

 which he gives the name P. Oryzce, and of which he describes the 

 spermogonia, perithecia, and pycnidia. In the " carolo bianco " the 

 parasite has attained only an earlier stage of its development ; in 

 the " carolo vero " it has reached a more perfect stage. Its presence 

 is shown by the dry, dull-red leaves and leaf-sheaths, the blackish, 

 often torn nodes, which have sometimes altogether disapj)eared, and 

 the dark, smutty sjiike which falls out on the least touch. The grain 

 is empty, both embryo and endosperm having completely dis- 

 appeared. The fructification makes its ai^pearance over the whole 

 plant. 



Sporormia, a Subgenus of Sphseria.-j- — E. Pirotta proposes to re- 

 establish, with some modifications, Do Notaris's genus Sporormia, 

 nearly synonymous with the Hormospora of the same author, usually 

 sunk in the enormous genus Sjjhceria. 



The following is his diagnosis of the genus : — Stroma none or 

 simjile ; perithecia scattered or gregarious, half-immersed or super- 

 ficial, never enclosed, smooth, globose or oblong-conical, black, some- 

 times transparent, pajjillose, prolonged into a mamillfeform or 

 irregular conical neck ; asci cylindrical, subclavate or widest in the 

 middle, containing usually eight ascospores, prolonged into a pedicel, 

 rarely sessile ; parajihyses, when present, filiform, undivided or septate, 

 simple or branched, numerous, flaccid, gelatinous ; ascospores cylin- 

 drical, composed of from four to twenty jointed or moniliform sjjori- 

 dioles, dusky or nearly black, sometimes encircled by a hyaline 

 gelatinous ring ; when mature breaking uj) into the sej)arate spori- 

 dioles. The description of the genus is followed by that of twenty 

 species. 



Sclerotium Oryzse.iJ: — This form of "sclerotium" is described by 

 Cattaneo as appearing in enormous quantities on the lower portions 

 of the haulm of the rice beneath the water, to which it is excessively 

 destructive, appearing especially in the hollow of the stem, and in the 

 leaf-sheaths. It is globular and very small, with brownish membrane 

 and yellowish protoplasm. The writer states that cavities are 

 developed within the sclerotium, which increase and finally coalesce ; 

 and that spores are then formed by abstriction from the ends of 

 hypha? which appear within the cavities. Their germination was not 



* See ' Bot. Zeit.,' xxxvii. (1879) p. 359. 

 t 'Nuov. Giorn. Bot. It.,' x. (1878) p. 127. 



X 'Archivio tiienruilc del lavoratorio di Botanica Crittiigamica di Pavia,' 

 vol. ii. ; see ' Bot. Zeit.,' xxxvii. (1879) p. 327- 



