700 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



cultures, and that were protected from all spore contamination, remained 

 healthy. 



Corn Smuts and their Propagation.* — T. Johnson writes a popular 

 account of the various smuts. He sketches the history of our know- 

 ledge of these organisms, and of the works published concerning them 

 by the brothers Tulasne, Kiihn, and Brefeld. The latter writer dis- 

 covered quite recently that smut infection of oats takes place when the 

 host is a seedling ; in the case of wheat and barley, it is the flower that 

 gives entrance to the fungal pest. In Indian corn any young tissue is 

 liable to attack. The best methods of cure for the different types of 

 smut are described. 



Abnormalities in Agarics. f — E. Tobias writes on the abnormal 

 forms assumed by various fungi, as, for instance, when a " cap " turned 

 upside down is borne on another. He explains the occurrence thus : 

 that the two plants grew close together and the stronger tore the weaker 

 from its base and carried it up. 



Form Development in Agarics. J — Werner Magnus has devoted 

 much attention to the study of this subject. He has made observations 

 on the growth and expansion of the normal plants, and he has tested 

 the power of recuperation of the various parts by wounding the tissues, 

 or cutting off the different organs and then watching further growth. 

 Shortly before the period of expansion he found that the function of 

 each part was determined, and if that part was cut away it did not grow 

 again. He tested the vegetative power of growth of isolated hyphas, 

 and found that they grew in a nutritive solution or in distilled water 

 from almost any part of the organism. He discusses also the instances 

 of teratological formations, the most frequent of which is the doubling 

 of the fruit-body. He records instances of monstrosities, and gives his 

 views as to their origin. The phylogenetic problem is also reviewed, with 

 reference to the growth and form of the hymenium, etc. 



New Belgian Gasteromycete.§ — Ch. Van Bambeke describes the 

 somewhat rare Pisolithus arenarius Alb. and Schwein., which has re- 

 cently been found growing in Belgium. He describes the fungus, 

 which is usually found growing on sandy soil, and gives the distribution 

 of the species, rather a wide one ; it is rare in Europe and America, but 

 fairly common in Australia. 



Mycological Notes.|| — C. G. Lloyd has recently issued two numbers 

 of his <k Notes." The first, almost wholly written in French, gives an 

 account of some of the more rare Gasteromycetes, Araehnion album, 

 species of Bovistelia, Battarrea, Calvatia, Lijcoperdon, etc. The writer 

 thinks that European botanists have not given sufficient attention to 

 this group of fungi. He records a new genus, Whetstonia, from 

 Minnesota. The gleba consists of spores contained in persistent cells ; 



* Science Progress, i. (1906) pp. 137-49. 



+ Zeitschr. Nat Abt. Deutsch. Gesell. Kunst. u. Wiss. Posen, xii. (1906) p. 79 

 (figs.). See also Bot. Centralbl , cii. (1906) p. 256. 



% Berlin: R. Friedlander & Sohn, 1906, 161 pp. (6 pis.). 



§ Bull. Soc. Roy. Bot. Belg. xlii. (1906) pp. 178-83 (1 pi.). 



|| Mycological Notes, Nos. 22 and 23 (Cincinnati, 1906) pp. 261-92 (5 pis.). 



