Meyen's Report for 1839 on Physiological Botany. 4C1 



M. Corda never saw the sporangium of this curious fungus 

 fall off or o])en, and the seeds when sown did not succeed. 



Finally, M. Corda remarks, that the copulation of these 

 fertile branchlets has been compared to that of certain Con- 

 fervas, but that this comparison, on a critical examination of 

 both cases, does not appear to be very correct. I also have 

 compared the copulation of (Sy^yr/i/es with that of theConfervEe, 

 and after I have carefully examined all the kinds of copula- 

 tion which have been observed in Confervae and Closteria;, I 

 cannot imagine how M. Corda can make such a statement ; 

 it evidently arose from the fact that M. Corda has not exa- 

 mined the phaenomena of copulation of the Algte with as much 

 diligence as he has those of the mould, for, particularly in 

 Closteriai, the phaenomena are quite similar ; and in the 8pi- 

 rogyr^e 1 have also seen that the usual spore produced by co- 

 pulation again appeared as a sporangiolum, and contained se- 

 veral smaller spores, &c. 



More important for us are the contents of the third volume 

 of figures of Fungi* which M. Corda has published ; we find 

 therein new researches on the genus jEcidiuin, which is not 

 as yet correctly understood. M. Corda refers yEcidium to 

 the true Gasteromycetes, on account of its peridiura : he 

 sowed the spores oi jEcidium Tussilayinis on leaves of the 

 Colt'sfoot, which were kept moist, or were immersed in water, 

 and he often succeeded in making them germinate ; they de- 

 veloped on the spore- skin, by means of extension, a wart, 

 which became a cellular filament, producing threads in every 

 direction, as is the case with the spores of all Fungi. By de- 

 grees a fibrous net, or tissue, is formed out of these threads, 

 similar to that produced by the spores of Fungi, Algas and 

 Moss ; these are said to be true germinative threads, and M. 

 Corda says he has seen them penetrate through the stomata 

 of the epidermis into the parenchym of the leafj and then com- 

 mence dividing into branches. 



Botanists will readily perceive the importance of these 

 statements : the propagation of the Leaf-fungi has not yet been 

 observed, but a number of hypotheses have been invented to 

 explain it ; these will, however, all be done away with, if M. 

 Corda's statement, that the germinative threads of the spores 

 of jEcidium pass into the parenchym of the leaf through the 

 stomata, is found to be correct. M. Corda saw, moreover, 

 that the little heaps of jEcldmm, with their cellular stroma, 

 are fastened on laterally to one of the bundles of vessels in 

 the leaf. These points are illustrated by excellent figures. 



The larger half of the volume treats of the Hymenomyceta, 

 to which M. Corda reckons not only the Helvellacece, Pezizce 

 * Icoiiesfiingorum, &c., toil), iii. Prag. 1839. Noticed by us at p. 1 45, vol. vi. 



