924 RECORD OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RET,ATINQ TO 



there is no distinct stem. The base is watery white, the upper half a 

 bright reddish orange. 



For some time Dr. Cooke was puzzled with this, which at first he 

 regarded as a Tremella, or Gue^yinia, or it might be an ally of Spathu- 

 laria ; softened and examined under the Microsco^De no external 

 trace of hymenium could be found, nothing but a tough cellular 

 tissue of large and uniform cells, until cutting open one of the speci- 

 mens, he found the inner walls softer, rugose, and so different in 

 texture that at once, more out of curiosity as to the character of the 

 cells, than hope to find the hymenium, he examined a portion of the 

 inner wall, and found it to consist entii-ely of an effused hymenium 

 of large, closely packed, cylindrical asci, each containing its eight 

 elliptical sporidia, but without paraphyses. In fact there is here an 

 inflated fleshy sac, with the hymenium enclosed and covering the 

 whole of the inner surface. It is a Spatlmlaria turned inside out, and 

 is of far more importance than a mere new species or genus could be, 

 presenting a most interesting subject for study, and adding yet 

 another to the contrarieties of the antipodes. 



With respect to the affinities of the new fungu'?, there is no doubt 

 whatever that the hymenium is entirely enclosed, normally. Perhaps 

 Sphcerosoma comes nearest to it, except that it has a thicker and 

 firmer periderm, and is moreover hypogaeous. This affinity is sufficient 

 to prove that it is not impossible for a plant of such a structure to be 

 a Discomycete, and Tulasne considered Sphcerosoma to be a Discomy- 

 cete although evidently so very closely related to Genea. Indeed, in 

 Dr. Cooke's oinnion S2:)Jicerosoma is further removed from the Discomy- 

 cetes in the direction of the Tuberacei than Berggrenia from some 

 species of Peziza. 



There is a great similarity in the character of the fruit, and in the 

 fleshy stroma, as to texture, &c., between Cyttaria and Berggrenia ; 

 in fact, the latter resembles the former, inverted, and the areolfe 

 suppressed. The hymenium is confined in some Cyttarioi to a few 

 nearly closed cells, and although the relationship is by no means 

 close in any direction, Berggrenia should be placed, it is suggested, in 

 the Bulgariacei, nearest perhaps to Cyttaria. The discovery hereafter 

 of intermediate links may render the affinities clearer than at present 

 they seem to be. 



Microphytes in the Blood and their relation to Disease.* — 



Mr. T. E. Lewis contributes a paper of fifty images on this important 

 subject, giving a critical resume of the work of former observers, as 

 well as the results of his own investigations. 



Mr. Lewis, first of all, goes over the evidence for the opinion that 

 bacteria are the actual cause of the morbid symptoms in splenic 

 fever, septicaemia, infectious pneumo-enteritis of the pig, and re- 

 current fever, the diseases in which there is the strongest evidence 

 for a contagium vivum. He then recounts some observations of his 

 own as to the occurrence of bacteria in the blood of perfectly healthy 

 animals, and gives his reasons for thinking that the presence of 

 microphytes in the blood is a mere epi-phenomenon, having no 

 * ' Quart. Journ. Micr. Soi.,' xix. (l^!79) p. 356. 



