PLASMODIOPHORACEAE 129 



potato. Massee informs us that Berkeley, who first described 

 this parasite, and others classed it with the smuts because 

 the spores are formed in groups. 



The lesions on the potato vary from small scabs to 

 cavities lined with a dense layer of snuff-coloured spores. 



Massee states : " The plasmodium appears to be active 

 only during the period when the tuber is growing, and 

 passes into a resting condition when the tuber is dormant 

 during the winter. In the spring, when the potato com- 

 mences to sprout, the plasmodium again becomes active 

 and migrates from the old tuber or set into the new tubers 

 formed during the process of growth." 



The foregoing calls for re-examination : it is probable 

 that infection of the young tubers is produced by hatching 

 of zoospores from the infected " set." 



Whether some species of this order attack animals is a 

 question worth considering. Leger and Hesse described 

 " A New Protist Parasitic in Otiorhyncws" The parasite, 

 Mycctosporidium talpa, infests the epithelium of the whole 

 of the intestine of the beetle, and the authors leave it doubtful 

 whether it is a Haplosporidian or a " Mycetozoon." 



Several points connected with this group still require 

 to be made clear. Do the zoospores multiply by fusion 

 and conjugate ? What are the earliest intracellular states 

 of the parasite ? 



Schwartz doubts the conjugation that v. Prowazek 

 described in the course of formation of spores. 



9 



