3IO NATURAL SCIENCE. Nov., 



6 thousands in the four fishings of Spring, Midsummer, North Sea, and 

 Home. The fishermen seem rather to prefer to fit out their boats 

 and send them to the West of England to the great mackerel fishing. 

 A total of 464 boats were engaged during 1894 ^^ the Herring 

 fishery, with a complement of 2,974 ^^^ ^^^ boys. This includes 

 the boats from Scotland. The highest catch for the year amounted 

 to 23 lasts 8 thousands, and the biggest delivery in one day was made 

 on October 30, when 132 boats landed at Yarmouth no less than 541 

 lasts of fish. The average return of the Yarmouth boats was about 

 ;^75o, that of the Scotch ;^300 to less than ;^ioo. This falling off" in 

 Scotch hauls is due to the fact that they had the misfortune to fall in 

 with a large school, which, in many cases, struck their nets and filled 

 them so heavily that they carried them to the bottom, twisting and 

 entangling them to such an extent that many of them were so injured 

 as to be of no further use. 



A New Case of Symbiosis. 

 In the most recent issue oiLe Botaniste (serie 4, fasc. 4, 5), Mr. P. A. 

 Dangeard describes a new and remarkable case of symbiosis. Unlike 

 the lichen, where an alga and fungus club together for mutual 

 benefit, we find here an intimate association of two basidiomycetous 

 fungi, Dacryomyces deliquescens, and one of the Tremellineae. The 

 former plays the principal part, entering most largely into the consti- 

 tution of the thallus. The different shape of the basidia enables us 

 to distinguish the two species, the hymeneal layer containing a mixed 

 assemblage of the ovoid basidia of Dacryomyces and the larger 

 cylindrical ones of its associate. Mr. Dangeard found them in 

 September of last year growing on dead wood, but it was only after 

 a detailed study of the specimens that he realised the presence of 

 something other than a normal Dacryomyces. As the discoverer 

 observes, it is difficult to imagine what mutual or selfish advantage 

 can ensue from this association of two parasitic fungi. 



The Ascent of Water in Plants. 

 We referred in our last number to some recent work by Messrs. 

 Dixon and Joly on the vexed question of the manner of ascent of 

 the water in the stems of plants. In the latest issue of the Annals of 

 Botany (vol. ix., p. 403) the same authors recount some experiments on 

 the subject, in connection with the behaviour of the leaves on a 

 shoot or branch when the lumina of the vessels are choked with 

 foreign substances. Cocoa-butter had already been used by Elfving 

 and gelatine by Errara and Strasburger ; besides repeating the older 

 experiments, paraffin wax of low melting-point was also employed, 

 and in another set carbonic acid gas was liberated in the vascular 

 tissue by the reaction of sodium bicarbonate and tartaric acid. All 

 these experiments tend to show that, while the freedom of the lumina 

 is necessary for a rapid and at all adequate transmission of water, yet 



