INVERTEBRATA, CRYPTOGAMIA, MICROSCOPY, ETC, 921 



which they are found are in blossom, Mr. M. A. Veeder, of New 

 York, anticijjated that these spores would be found along with the 

 pollen in the interior of the ovary, thus coming into contact with the 

 seeds and depositing the germs of future growth. Acting upon this 

 hypothesis, he examined the flowers of Podoi^hyllum peltatnm and 

 Ariscema tripliyllum growing within a few feet of plants of the same 

 species whose leaves were covered with cluster-cups, and in many 

 instances found the orange-coloured spores among the pollen in the 

 ovary. He also found pollen from Podophyllum peltatiim mingled 

 with the spores dusted over the leaves of a plant of the same species 

 at a distance of several feet from any blossom, indicating, apparently, 

 that it had been transjiorted by insects. 



Onion-smut, Urocystis Cepulae.* — A parasitic fungus, excessively 

 destructive to the onion, was first observed in North America, in the 

 States of Connecticut and Massachusetts, about twelve years since, and 

 was first described by Dr. Farlow f under the name of Urocystis Cejmlce. 

 Although committing great ravages on the crops in those States, it was 

 very local, being unknown in that of New York. Hitherto the fungus 

 has been supposed to be confined to the New World ; but M. Cornu has 

 now detected it in the neighbourhood of Paris, on an early variety of 

 the white onion known as the " Oignon de Nancy." It attacks the bulb- 

 scales and the bases of the leaves, reducing them to a black powder. 

 Dr. Farlow considers that the fungus has invaded the onion from some 

 wild si^ecics, and Dr. Cooke considers it a variety of Urocystis Colchici, 

 a parasite of the autumn crocus. 



Lagenidium Rabenhorstii, a new Phycomycete.J — W. Zopf 

 reports the discovery of this new parasitic fungus, which was causing 

 great ravages among the Sjnroyyra and other Conjugatje in the water 

 in the Zoological Garden in Berlin, to the Proceedings of the Botanical 

 Society of Brandenburg. The reniform biciliatcd zoosj)ores attached 

 themselves to the host, penetrating the cell-wall by means of a perfo- 

 rating tube, and developing in the interior into a mycelium, which, in 

 its non-reproductive condition, is unicellular, of small dimensions, and 

 unbranched. The zoosporangia become subsequently separated by a 

 septum. Sexual plants sj^ring from two zoospores which penetrate 

 into the same cell of the host ; the antheridia and oogonia resem- 

 bling those of the class generally. Though coming nearest to Lageni- 

 dium of any known genus, it differs from the species hitherto known 

 in the form of the zoospores and th:; numbjr of the cilia. 



The author divides the family of Saprolegniacete into two groujjs : 

 — (1) the typical Saprolegniete, in which there is a distinct differentia- 

 tion of a vegetative and a reproductive portion, including the genera 

 Saprolegnia, PytMiim, Cystosiplwn, &c. ; and (2) the Ancyliste^e of 

 Pfitzer, in which no such differentiation is evident, and in which must 

 be included the genera Ancylistcs, Myzocytium, Lagenidium, and Acldyo~ 

 geton. 



* ' Cumptes Eenduir,' Ixxxix. (1879) p. 51. 



t Twenty-fourth Ann. Rep. of the Sec. of the Massachusetts State Board of 

 Agriculture, Onion-smut, 1877. 



X See 'Hcdwigia,' xviii. (1879) p. 9-1. 



