1903] BRIEFER ARTICLES 307 
fill these structures with a mass of mycelium, which develops small 
spores as in the Ustilaginales. These spores were first described for 
Sphagnum by Schimper in 1858 as “‘ microspores,” which he supposed 
to result from the extensive division of the spore mother-cells. 
Nawaschin, however, in 1892, determined the “microspores” to be 
derived from a fungus, which he regarded as probably a Tilletia and 
named 7Zv//etia (?) sphagni. In the absence of information on the 
methods of spore germination, the exact position of the fungus must 
remain uncertain. 
Cavers’ has found a similar fungus in the capsule of Pa//avicinia 
Lyellii, whose spores had also previously been called “microspores ” 
by Warnstorf in 1887, and similar conditions were found in Pad/avict- 
nia hibernica. Cavers, however, presents no details of their structure 
and development. 
The earliest observations on fungous mycelium in the liverworts 
seem to have been those of Leitgeb on several forms in the Junger- 
manniales.2 He determined that the fungus entered the neck of fer- 
tilized archegonia and that the infected sporophytes, after a short 
period of irregular growth, remained abortive, the cavity becoming 
filled with mycelium in which spores were formed by abstriction. 
The most recent contribution to the subject is by H. and P. Sydow‘ 
who have found this Tilletia-like fungus in the sporophyte of Antho- 
ceros dichotomus, and named it TZil/etia (?) adscondita. Nothing is 
known, however, of the development of this form. 
Botanists are probably not generally aware that the liverwort, Aic- 
ctocarpus natans, harbors a parasite which appears to be similar to this 
Tilletia (?) described in the other bryophytes. I have repeatedly met 
it in the preparations of my classes where this liverwort was under 
observation. The infected capsules fail to mature and the interior 
becomes filled with small spores. These fungi offer an attractive field 
for investigation and their life history, completely studied, would clear 
up a very confused subject.— Brap ey M. Davis, The University of 
Chicago. 
?CAVERS, On saprophytism and mycorhiza in Hepaticae. New Phytologist 
2:30. 1903. 
3 Untersuchungen iiber die Lebermoose 2:—. 
4Sypow, H. and P., Die Mikrosporen von Anthoceros dichotomus Raddi, Tilletia 
abscondita Syd. nov. spec. Ann. Mycologici 1:174~76. 1903. 
