2 7° The Botanical Gazette. [September 



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1 hree papers have recently appeared in the series of " Contribu- 

 tions from the Crvptogamic Laboratory of Harvard University," and 

 reprinted from Pruc. Amur. Acad., 26. No. XIV is entitled " Prelimi- 

 nary notes on the species of Doassansia," by William Albert Setchell. 

 This genus, growing upon aquatic hosts, is separated from all the other 

 Entylomata by having a sorus invested with a cortex of sterile cells. 

 The twelve species, three of which are new, are arranged under three 

 subgenera. Two new genera are described, both closely related to 

 Entyloma and Doassansia. The one, Burrillia, dedicated to Prof. 

 T. J. Burnll, has a compact, solid sorus with little or no cortex, and is 

 found on leaves of Sagittaria; the other, CormtcUa.. dedicated to Prof. 



Maxime Cornu, has a hollow sorus with no cortex, and grows on 

 Lemna. 



No. XV is "On the structure and development of Choreocolax Poly- 

 siphoniae," by Herbert Maule Richards, and contains a double plate. 

 After describing fully the structure and development of this obscure 

 alga which is parasitic upon the common alga, Polysiphonia fastigiata, 

 the author discusses its relationship to the rest of the Floridea. It has 

 heretofore been placed among the Gelidiacese, but Mr. Richards finds 

 that the condition of the cystocarp places the plant in the order 

 Chaetangiaceae. 



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No. XVI is entitled "On a Kephir-like yeast found in the United 

 States," by Charles L. Mix. "Kephir" is a fermented milk of the 

 Caucasus Mountains, and the yeast which causes this alcoholic fermen- 

 tation of milk has been known, so far, in no other place. What are 

 known as " Kephir-grains" are added to the milk to produce the fer- 

 mentation. These grains when fresh are white, compact, elastic masses, 

 enveloped by a slime, with a spherical or elliptical contour, and vary- 

 ing from 1 mm. to 5 cm. in diameter. Drying does not deprive them 

 of life, and in this dried state they are kept for long periods, becoming 

 dirty brown and hard as stone. The origin of these grains seems to be 

 unknown, no wild form of yeast having been found from which they 

 might have been cultivated. They are said to grow in little clumps or 

 grant! es on peculiar bushes found on the mountains just beneath the 

 snow line, tn 1881 Edouard Kern published the first account of the 

 Caucasian "Kephir." The grains are composed of yeast cells and 

 bacteria embedded in a zooglcea mass. Exposed to unfavorable con- 

 ditions the bacteria cells grow out into Leptothnx threads, wtth spore 

 formation, and kern named this Kephir bacterium Dispora Caucasica, 

 a new genus and species. The recent study of Mr. Mix was suggested 

 by the receipt by Dr. Far.ow of two sets of specimens, one from On- 



