1899] PHYLOGENY OF RUST 391 
which resembles in all other particulars one of the Lepto-forms inhabiting 
Rhamnus. Fischer prefers the view that in this case the ancestral form 
was capable of completing the whole cycle of its life-history, as well on 
grasses aS on various species of Rhamnus, and that its descendants 
became specialised so as to form either aecidia on Rhamnus and the 
uredo-teleutospore generation on grasses, or the aecidia was dropped 
and the uredo-teleutospore generation alone persisted on Rhamnus as in 
the Leptopuccinias in question. 
As, however, these give rise to several generations on the same 
host in the course of each year, Dietel is unable to recognise 
any sufficient cause for the disappearance of the aecidial generation, 
and believes a more probable view to be that the ancestral form only 
bore teleutospores, and that the uredo and aecidial generations 
originated at a later phylogenetic stage, a hypothesis which receives 
some support from Brefeld’s well-known views regarding the origin of 
the Uredines from the Auricularias, a saprophytic group which possesses 
no spore form comparable with either aecidio- or uredo-spores, both of 
which may have originated as an adaptation to a parasitic mode of 
existence, though not necessarily on all the host plants inhabited by 
the parent form. 
Ferments in Fungi. 
THE fat-splitting ferment first obtained in a pure state by Professor 
Green during his classical researches on the germination of castor oil 
seeds, or at least a ferment possessing similar properties, has just been 
obtained by Mr. R. H. Biftin (Annals of Botany, 1899, p. 365), from a 
fungus which he was fortunate enough to find growing on the 
endosperm of a germinating cocoa-nut, and which apparently belongs to 
the Hypocreaceae, though to which section of the family it must 
ultimately be referred remains undecided, owing to the constant sterility 
of the perithecia, in which no ascospores have as yet been found, 
though chlamydospores and sickle-like microconidia are abundant on 
the mycelium. The fungus grows freely on sterilised slices of cocoa-nut 
and Brazil-nut endosperm, as well as in cocoa-nut milk and similar media, 
with the result that the oil which these contain gradually disappears, 
being decomposed into glycerine and fatty acids, the former of which is 
absorbed by the plant and forms its source of carbohydrate food 
material, while the latter accumulates in the fluid and increases its 
acidity. 
Mr. Biffin has succeeded in isolating the ferment by the usual 
process of extraction with water and precipitation by means of alcohol, 
when a white substance was obtained, which, when re-dissolved in 
water, furnished a solution possessing the properties of the fungus, in so 
far as these are concerned in the decomposition of fats. 
