1904 | CURRENT LITERATURE 401 
MATTE! discusses* the structure and ecology of a gall produced on 
Quercus leptobalanus Gussone, by Cynipfs Mayri Kieffel. The galls in ques- 
tion are of a brilliant carmine color and give off the odor-of hyacinths. Their 
surfaces are covered with a viscid secretion, in which are usually to be found 
the more or less dissolved remains of small myriapods, arachnids, microlep- 
idoptera, minute coleoptera and diptera, with a few other forms. Amid these 
animal remains are found two kinds of trichomes, one set composed of from 
three to six cells of unequal size, the largest at the distal extremity, all with 
reddish purple protoplasm, and resembling the secreting hairs of various car- 
nivorous plants. The other set of trichomes consists of slender quadrifid 
hairs, radiating in the form of a cross and extending outward toward the por- 
tion of the viscid coating (the outer part) where | there is the most an nimal 
ucts. Whether the nutritive material obtained by the gall from captured 
insects, etc, is utilized for the growth of the gall in general, for the nourish- 
ment of the Cynips larva in particular, or even, in part, for the use of the oak 
host Professor Mattei leaves for future investigation and discussion, The 
subject of possible carnivorous habits in galls deserves to be fully investigated 
and promises to be full of interest— JosEPH Y. BERGEN. 
By THE USE of material infiltrated, imbedded, and cut in serial sections, 
Erwin Baur3s has been enabled to trace the origin of the ascogenous hyphae 
in a number of lichen genera not heretofore studied accurately in this 
respect. From these researches it appears that the ascogenous hyphae have 
their origin in a well-developed carpogonium in the case of Parmelia, 
Anaptychia, Endocarpon, Gyrophora, Lecanora, and Cladonia. The carpo- 
te) 
could not be further followed, In Solorina, as in Peltigera, Peltidea, and 
Nephromium, the origin of the carpogonium is stated to be probably 
apogamous, and this fact is correlated with the absence of spermogonia in 
these genera. 
In view of the difficulty experienced by other observers in securing 
thorough infiltration of the lichen thallus, Baur’s method may be summarized 
as follows: Damp material is fixed in a saturated solution of sublimate in 
5% acetic acid, After thorough washing in water and alcoholic iodine, the 
34 MaTTEI, G. E., Osservazioni biologiche intorno ad una galla. Bull. Orto Bot. 
Naples 1 :—(fase. 4). pl. 7. 1903 
Baur, E., Untersuchungen iiber die Entwickelungsgeschichte der Fiechtena 
pothecien, I. Bot Zeit. 621:21-44. pls. 7-2. 1904 
