74 SUMMAKY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



The form with which he experimented, Sceptromyces, was found growing 

 on chestnut husks. From it he grew Aspergillus niger, and from a 

 culture of the latter he again produced Sceptromyces. 



Identity of the Genera Meria and Hartigiella.* — A disease of 

 leaves of the larch was found by P. Yuillemin to be caused by a fungus 

 that developed its fruits underneath the stomata. The fertile hyphae 

 pass out through the pores and bear the spores in the open. He named 

 the fungus, which was new to science, Meria Laricis. It was at a later 

 date again discovered and described first as Allescheria, and then as 

 Hartigiella. Lindau, in his recent Kryptogamen- Flora, places the fungus 

 among the Botrydeae. Vuillemin does not agree with this classification. 

 He considers the fungus to be the type of a new family, Hyposto- 

 maceas, characterised by the formation of a fungal layer under the 

 stoma. He thinks that some other fungi described as Hyphomycetes, 

 Melanconiaceas, and Sphaeropsideae, ought to be placed in the new family. 

 The fertile hyphas are not exhausted by the formation of spores, their 

 membranes become thickened, and they are transformed into a mass of 

 persistent cysts, something like the resting spores of the UstilagineaB. 



Origin and Spread of Plant Rusts.f — Jakob Eriksson continues 

 the discussion on the mycoplasma theory of the origin of rusts, and 

 criticises the opinions of those writers who have opposed this theory. 

 Eriksson does not deny that in certain cases uredo sori may persist 

 during the winter, but he insists that it is not proved that the disease is 

 propagated by the uredospores, and questions the capacity of the air 

 to convey them. There are three distinct periods of attack : in late 

 autumn -or winter, in early spring, and towards the end of June, the 

 latter being the most widespread and harmful. All of these he states 

 are due to mycoplasma in the seed. He further points out that in other 

 parasites we have perennial mycelium, which provides for the continual 

 growth of the fungus ; in these cases spores are dispensed with, and a 

 similar life-history is to be found in rusts. 



Infection of Cereals by the Smut fungus.f — Ludwig Hecke ex- 

 perimented with the ears of wheat and barley, and found that the fungus 

 gained entrance by the stigma, and when the infected seeds were sown the 

 following year the smut fungus was produced. Hecke found the fungus 

 in the young embryo of the seed, in the scutellum, at the vegetative 

 apex, and in the first formed layers of the leaves. He thinks it probable 

 that the Lolium fungus is also a form of smut. 



Work on Smut.§ — Oscar Brefeld has issued a further portion of his 

 work on filamentous and yeast fungi. This part deals with the smut of 

 cereals. He has made a special study of the infection of the different 

 plants attacked by smut. He has proved by experiments that the smut 

 spores of wheat and barley only infect the young fruit. They alight 



♦ Ann. Mycol., iii. (1905) pp. 340-3 (8 figs.). 



f Arkiv Bot. k. Svenska Vet. Akad. Stockholm, v. No. 3 (1905) pp. 1-54. See 

 also Bot. Centralbl., xcix. (1905) pp. 471-3. 



J Ber. Deutsch. Bot. Ges., xxiii. (1905) pp.248-50 (lpl.). 



§ Untersuch. aus dem. Ges. der Mykologie, heft xiii. Brandpilze iv. (Munster, 

 1905) 74 pp., 2 pis. 



