388 Miscellaneous. 



upwards. This reversed position was maiutained throughout the 

 young state of the plants so long as the hood, then in the form of a 

 thimble, had its hymenial lamellae closely applied to the upper part 

 of the stem ; but as soon as the hood began to spread out and re- 

 move its lamellae from contact with the stem, the latt-er bent upwards 

 at a distance of about five miUims. from its extremity, in such a 

 manner as to elevate the hood and turn the lamellae downwards. 

 This bending was not a gradual curvature, but an actual elbow, 

 forming a right ( or even a slightly acute ) angle, having for its sides 

 the two very unequal portions of the stem, both of which were recti- 

 linear. This turning had taken place upon all the individuals, 

 about fifty in number, which had attained the adult state. The 

 author confesses himself unable to suggest any satisfactory explana- 

 tion of it. It is evident that the erection of the apex of the stem, 

 which turned the hood over, must have been produced by the sudden 

 elongation of the cellular tissue on one side of the stem to a much 

 greater extent than that on the opposite side ; but, as the auth'-'r 

 remarks, this is merely stating the crude fact, not explaining it. 

 He says that if we chose " to employ a word now much in vogue," 

 we might say that the portion of tissue which was active in this 

 erection acquired at the proper moment a tension superior to the 

 tissue occupying the opposite side. But this would be merely to 

 substitute a word having a scientific appearance for more common- 

 place expressions, and it would still remain to be explained how 

 this unilateral excess of elongation, or this " local tension," could 

 have been produced in an organ in which nothing was predis- 

 posed for it, and simply because the exceptional position of the 

 fungus had reversed the natural direction of its organs. That this 

 change of direction is not isolated or accidental, has been proved by 

 the author by experiments on some plants of Claviceps purpurea 

 grown in a reversed position, which, on approaching maturity, 

 turned up their stalks by describing a curve forming a larger or 

 smaller portion of a circle, after which the extremities bearing the 

 heads continued to grow upwards. This fact, the author thinks, is 

 still more unfavourable to the theory of the influence of gravity 

 upon the direction of growth of Fungi than even the phenomena 

 observed by him in the Agaric ; for the L'laviceps has no hymenial 

 lamellae to exhibit the hypothetical tendency to yielding to the ac- 

 tion of gravity, its head being nearly globular and symmetrical in 

 all its parts. — Comptes Rendus, April 11, 1870, tome Ixx. pp. 776- 

 782. 



Deep-sea Dredging in the Adriatic. 



We understand that Prof. Oscar Schmidt of Gratz will publish in 

 June an account of the Sponges of the Atlantic, founded chiefly on 

 the collections made by Mr. Pourtales and the Scandinavian zoolo- 

 gists, and that he will proceed this summer to various parts of the 

 Adriatic to make deep-sea dredgings, in the steamer ' Triest,' of the 

 Imperial Austrian navy. — J. E. Geat. 



