390 BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 
very ancient and very distinct, and its origin very uncertain; the latter entirely 
resembling that of neighboring islands and continents. It is stated that not 
even a well marked species would be lost if the Bermudas were submerged. 
Mr. G. Murray, in his annual reports as Inspector of Fisheries in England 
and Wales, gives some interesting accounts of the inoculation of fishes with 
Saprolegnia ferax. The cultivation of this fungus was carried on with flies as 
hosts, and inoculations were effected by rubbing the head or sides of the fish 
with an infected y. Experiments were mostly made upon species of the Sal- 
monide. Some experiments were very successful, others not at all so; in the 
former cases the fungus appearing and death following promptly. In one case, 
Where the disease broke out in a fish tank, it was found that oospores of Sapro- 
the bodies of diseased fishes. Afterwards another fungus, Dictyuchus, appeared 
d 
pletely disappearing. 
MusHROoMS are coming to the front, and information concerning them 
may soon be broadcast enough in this country to bring within the reach of our — 
people a very palatable, cheap, and abundant food. Dr. Rothrock has recently 
lectured upon this subject, in the Fairmount Park series of lectures. After de- 
scribing a number of nutritious and dangerous fungi, the lecturer said: “ There 
is a point to be insisted upon, that as fungi, which were edible and delicious and 
nutritious, are probably more abundant here than in Europe, where they are 
expense, whilst its practical benefits would be larger than we can at presen 
coneeive 
A RECENT PAPER! by M. Leclere du Sablon on the dissemination wee 
es of vascular cryptogams may be briefly summarized as follows: 
srabinitcend of the sporangium is quite similar in plants of the same family. 
Equisetacer the sporangium presents the same structure as in a large 
s 
ments of the spores after they are set free are due to the difference in the con 
° . . pee. : 
traction of the lignified and non-lignified parts of their ap ndages. : pos- 
Scence of the sporangium is explicable on the same principle, but is mace PF 
ee ee 
1 Ann. des Se, Nat. Sér. 7, tome ii, 1. 5. July, 1885, 
