488 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [june 



estimated 4000 to 5000 vines succumbed. The symptoms are: A trimmed and 

 tied vine that has failed to put out shoots; a vine that has sent forth shoots, the 

 latter dying after a few weeks; shoots and leaves that exhibit dwarfing; blanched 

 and chlorotic leaves; leaves and fruit shriveling and dying in the summer; the 

 presence of fleshy or corky excrescences on the stem, of minute black pimples on 

 a dead spur, or of small reddish-brown spots on the green shoots. The disease 

 is attributed to Fasicoccum viticolum, which is described as a new species. — F. L. 

 Stevens. 



Origin of plastids. — Without giving any adequate evidence, even in outline, 

 Schiller propounds the idea in a preliminary paper 42 (which can have no other 

 purpose than to secure priority, and this ought to be denied in such cases even 

 if the guen proves correct) that the plastids of plant cells arise by the extrusion 

 and fragmentation of nucleoli, whose fragments subsequently grow and change 

 their structure. He "is inclined to the view" that the plant cell is therefore to be 

 looked upon as binucleate, in the sense that the chromatophores correspond to a 

 macro- or yolk -nucleus, a view which has lately been expressed by Moroff for 

 animal cells. — C. R. B. 



Leaf blight.— Stevens and Hall describe^ a disease of apple, pear, and 

 quince, whose prominent symptom suggests the name leaf blight. As it is due 

 to Hypochnus ochroleucus Noack, they propose the name hypochnose, in conform- 

 ity to a scheme for making names of diseases by combining euphonically the name 

 of the fungus with the termination -ose. The disease resembles fire-blight (bacil- 

 lose), but only the leaves are affected (no twigs), and they stand erect instead of 

 drooping. The disease prevails in the mountain section of North Carolina, West 

 Virginia, and Alabama, but is probably much more widespread.— C. R. B. 



Geoglossaceae of N. A.— The attention of those interested is directed to an 

 elaborate monograph*-* f this family of Discomycetes, allied to the better-known 

 Helvella and Morchella types, as represented on this continent. There are 

 eleven genera, and the original fifty-three species Dirand reduces to forty-two. 

 We have no competence to review the work critically.— C. R. B. 



j- T - r _ ,^__JJX_L • 



4* Schiller, Jos., Ueber die Entstehung der Plastiden aus dem Zellkern. Oesterr. 

 Bot. Zeits. 59:89-91. figs. 3. 1909. 



43 Stevens, F. L., and Hall, J. G., Hypochnose of pomaceous fruits. Ann. 

 Mycol. 7:49-59- figs- 8. 1909. 



44 Durand, Elias J., The Geoglossaceae of North America. Ann. Mycol. 

 6:387-477. pis. 5-22. 1908. 



