1995] CURRENT LITERATURE 315 
Cuton® has described the fifty species of smuts known to occur in Con- 
necticut, introducing the descriptions by a general account of the characters of 
the gro umerous drawings and reproductions of photographs illustrate 
the paper.—J. M. C. 
SCHAFFNER® and his associates have made an ecological study of a glacial 
lake near Columbus, Ohio. Many of the typical bog plants, such as sphagnum, 
are absent; but some, as Decodon, are present in abundance.—H. C. CowLes. 
Oscoop,"° in an account of a reconnoissance in Alaska mainly concerned with 
birds and mammals, gives notes on the distribution of the more characteristic 
plants that will interest plant geographers.—H. C. CowLes. 
NOTES FOR STUDENTS. 
Favti! has made a cytological investigation of the ascus, studying the origin 
of the asci from the ascogenous hyphae, and their nuclear divisions and spore 
formations in a number of hitherto uninvestigated Ascomycetes, particularly 
H ydnobolites sp., Neotiella albocincta, and Sordaria finicola. He has examined 
thirty-six species in order to determine how the ascus originates from the ascog- 
enous hyphae. He finds numerous cases in which the ascus does not arise from 
the penultimate cell of the recurved tip of an ascogenous hypha, as described for 
Various Discomycetes but not for mildews. Marre and GUILLIERMOND have 
fully described deviations from this type, and Favtt in his examination finds 
that such is invariably the case in only eleven species. The ascus may bud out 
from the penultimate cell, although occasionally the septum between it and the 
terminal cell is lacking. The absence of this wall cutting off a uninucleate 
terminal cell at the tip seems to be the most frequent departure from the con- 
ventional type, being well illustrated by Genea hispidula, in which form the wall 
s always wanting. In some forms the asci arise from the terminal cell of the 
“scogenous hyphae and in others apparently from any cell. In every case defi- 
see determined, the uninucleate stage of the ascus arises by fusion of two 
nuclei, which may be daughter nuclei or sister nuclei, either before or after enter- 
= ne ascus. Extranuclear granules, staining like nucleoli and evidently nutri- 
Ye in character, were observed in the neighborhood of nuclei in the asci. 
a appearance of these bodies is a characteristic feature at different stages. 
bodies were also observed in ripe spores. 
Sn eas 
ie ae . — Perkins, The Ustilagineae, or smuts, of Connecticut. State 
‘ at. Hist. Survey, Bull. 5. pp. 45. figs. 55- 1905: 
oo » J. H., Jennincs, O. E., and Tyzer, F. J-; Ecological study of 
- Froc. Ohio State Acad. Sci. 4:151-165. 1904. 
Pp. eageas W. H., A biological reconnoissance of the base of the Alaska Peninsula. 
: 5. maps 2. North American Fauna No. 24. Washington. 19°4- 
— J. H., Development of ascus and spore formation in Ascomycetes. Proc. 
- Nat. Hist. 32:77-113. pls. 7-II. 1905. 
