INVERTEBRATA, CUYPTOGAillA, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 929 



iuvostigation, derived from experiments both ou tlie boot and on the 

 date and carrot. He considers it to have a close analogy with Nostoc 

 in its mode of germination and development, its structure in the adult 

 state, and its reproduction ; but, difiering in the absence of chloro- 

 phyll, he proposes for it the distinctive name of Ltmconostoc, a new 

 genus of bacteria, most nearly allied to Ascococcus and Myconostoc of 

 Cohn. It would then occupy a position in the family of Schizo- 

 phytas, and in Cohn's tribe of Nematogense, in the same section as 

 Nostoc and Hormosiphon, but constituting by itself the only member of 

 the series destitute of chlorophyll, known as Phycochroraacea). It 

 develops with extraordinary rapidity in a suitable medium, but has 

 not the character of a ferment. Its effects arc extremely injurious to 

 the industry. 



Excrescences on the Root of the Alder. * — Tubercular excrescences 

 on the root of the alder have long been a subject of investigation, and 

 have been referred by some to malformation and hypertrophal growth , 

 by others to the prick of an insect ; while M. Woronine attributes 

 them to the attacks of a parasitic fungus, to which he gave the name 

 Schinzia Alni, and of which he believed he had detected both the 

 mycelium and the spores. 



M. Gravis, who has subjected these bodies to fresh examination, 

 has been unable to confirm the observations of Woronine. Ho 

 considers them to partake rather of the nature of a gall ; the sub- 

 stances found in the cells he regards as amylaceous or albuminoid 

 reserve -materials stored up for the purpose of nutrition. Even should 

 the phenomenon be due to the attacks of a parasitic fungus, M. Gravis 

 thinks its systematic position has yet to be determined. 



Lichenes. 



Vitricole Lichens and the Schwendenerian Hypothesis-f— Dr. 

 Nylander has a note in ' Flora ' upon Vitricole Liclaeus, from which 

 the Eev. J. M. Crombie gives the following extract, wliich bears 

 directly upon Schwendener's theory. 



After observing that he had already J stated that it was useless 

 to study the germination of lichens from spores cultivated at home,§ 

 because in Nature itself not only the earliest stages of germina- 

 tion, but also the whole development of lichens, can readily be 

 perceived on quartzose rocks or smooth bark of trees,ll Dr. Nylander 

 proceeds to notice that the same may still more easily be observed on 

 glass which has been exposed for a long series of years in districts 

 where lichens are of common occurrence. " There, on the very pure 

 surface of the glass, we have under the Microscope before our eyes, 

 numerous germinations and prothalline formations, and then gradually 

 advancing the beginnings of the primary glomeruli of the thallus (as 



* 'Bull. Soc. Roy. Bot. Bclg.,' xviii. (1879) p. 50. 

 t 'Flora,' Ixii. (1879) p. 303; see ' Grevillea,' viii. (1879) p. 30. 

 X ' Flora,' 1877, p. 356, and 1878, p. 247. 

 § Vide also Crombie iu ' Pop. Sci. Kev.,' 1874, pp. 267-8. 

 II To this al.S() may be added, on mortar of walls and houses, as iu the suLurLs 

 of London. 



VOL. II. 3 Q 



