266 H. MAESHALL WARD. 



We now pass to the discovery of the true nature and sexual 

 organs of the Peronosporere by De Bary, who^ in a series of 

 masterly memoirs,^ has made this group and its allies a special 

 study. De Bary showed that in certain members of this group 

 an antheridium bores into the oogonium^ sending a " fertilising 

 tube ^' into the oosphere contained therein; the oosphere then 

 becomes an oospore, and capable of germination. 



A considerable amount of labour had been devoted to the 

 study of the Saprolegnise since Pringsheira's first publication, 

 much of it by this investigator himself,^ and among other re- 

 markable discoveries his observation that, in certain cases, the 

 oospores become normally developed and capable of germination 

 without any male organs being formed at all, is to be noted. 

 Pringsheim himself termed these oospores parthenogenetic.^ 

 We may pass over the controversy between Cornu^ and 

 Pringsheim as to certain details in the manner of fecunda- 

 tion of the oospheres of Saprolegnise. It is sufficient 

 to note that in 1880, or thereabouts, the matter appeared to 

 stand thus : While the typical Saprolegnise possess oospheres 

 in an oogonium, and antheridia as simple or branched struc- 

 tures which send " fertilising tubes " through the walls of the 

 oogonia as far as the oospheres, which they appeared to fertilise ; 

 there are others in which the oospheres develope into fertile 

 oospores without contact of the antheridia. 



If we now turn aside from the Fungi referred to in the 

 preceding sketch, we find a vast number of forms comprehended 

 under the Ustilagineae, Uredinese (^cidiomycetes), 

 andthelarger Basidiomycetes. The parasitic Ustilaginese 

 have received much attention since Tulasne^ and De Bary" 

 brought them together and led the way to a more scientific 

 knowledge of their nature. Much has been done since, and 



' ' Ann des Sc. Nat.,' ser. 4, vol. xx, and later, ' Beitrage zur Morph.,' R. ii ; 

 ditto, Il.iv. 'Bot. Zeit.,'18Sl. 



2 ' Jalirb. fiir wiss. Bot.' 



^ ' Jahrb. fiir wiss Bot.,' ix. 



* ' Ann des Sc. Nat.,' ser. 5, t. xv, &c. 



° ' Ann. des Sc. Nat.,' ser. 3, t. vii, and ser. 4, t. ii. 



6 'DieBrandpilze,' 1853. 



