388 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [MAY 
the development of the auxospore. The process of conjugation here also, as 
in the desmids*Closterium and Cosmarium, involves the formation of super- 
numerary nuclei, but these are formed in the diatom before conjugation 
instead of after as in the desmids. The resemblance of the process in Rho- 
palodia to the formation of supernumerary nuclei in copulating infusorians, 
and to the formation of polar bodies in animal eggs is quite close. The 
author is also of the opinion that twice as many chromosomes appear in ordi- 
nary vegetative divisions as in the two ripening divisions, and that just before 
the latter a reduction in the number of chromosomes may occur. The small- 
ness of the nuclei, however, and the few cases where mitosis was observed, 
leave this question in doubt.—R. A. H. 
IN THE Berichte der deutschen pharmaceutischen Gesellschaft for the cur- 
rent year(p. 11) there appears a short paper by Carl Miiller of Berlin concern- 
ing the inclusions in the living cell wall. e announces the discovery in the 
wall of certain cells in the root of Spzr@a filipendula of crystal like masses 
which gave none of the reactions of calcium oxalate or calcium carbonate, 
but on the contrary all those of cellulose. He concludes, therefore, that these 
crystalline masses are cellulose, and thinks that their occurrence is very 
general.—L. S.C. 
UnpER the title of Sclerotinia heteroica® M. Woronin and S. Nawaschin 
give the completed account of their discovery of a hetercecious ascomycete. 
The two forms in which the fungus appears are the saucer shaped long stalked 
apothecium, which develops from a sclerotium enclosed in a mummified 
fruit of Ledum palustre,and the conidial form whose mycelium develops in 
leaves and twigs of Vaccinium uliginosum. The ascus fruit had been already 
described by Nawaschin, as S. Zedi2? The conidial fruit was first obtained in 
cultures on nutrient gelatine and its discovery in this way led to the supposi- 
tion that it might occur in nature on leaves of the same host plant as is the 
case with Sclerotinia megalospora, whose conidia and apothecia are both 
parasitic on Vaccinium uliginosum. No conidial form, however, could be 
found on Ledum, but the discovery was made that what has previously beer 
known as the conidial fruit of S. megalospora consists really of two forms 
widely distinct from each other; one of which, as was proved by artificial 
infections, is able to produce sclerotia only in the ovaries of the Vaccinium; 
while the other can infect only those of Ledum. The two conidial forms differ 
further in the size of their spores, in their effect on the host plant, in their 
‘manner of germinating in water, and especially in their manner of penetra 
ing to the ovary of the host lars Infection in both cases takes place through 
a ae chrift ff pa. ee ‘ . 1896. [Heft 3-4. 22. 3, 4] 
sDuerda neue Sc/e ichen mit S. rhododendri Fischer. Berichte 4- 
deutsch. bot. Ges. ra :— — Tete 5] 
