274 
better growth of these plants on burned-over areas is due to the 
greater amount of soluble matter of an acid nature produced by 
heat. We also expect to study more carefully the nature of the 
soluble organic matter and its effect upon the cells of green plants. 
r. A. B. Stout presented in part the results of his studies on 
the ee Sclerotium rhizodes, a report of which will soon — 
as a research bulletin of the Wisconsin Experiment Statio 
This fungus has been found in Wisconsin on eleven species of 
grasses: Phalaris arundinacea; Calamagrostis canadensis; Cala- 
magrostis neglecta; Poa pratensis; Panicularia Rhone Phieum 
pratense; Hordeum jubatum; Bromus — Eatonia pennsyl- 
vanica; Agropyron caninum and Agrostis hyemalis. Infected 
specimens of all these grasses were aa ved. 
Special point was made of the ie of the fungus in the 
different organs of the host plant. The fungus is coexistent in 
leaves, buds, stems, rhizomes and roots of the same plant. In the 
leaves it is vigorously parasitic, in the buds and stems it is less 
and in the roots it assumes characters usually attributed to 
eee mycorrhiza. 
The morphological and cytological evidence, however, indi- 
cates that the action of the mycelium in individual root cells is 
parasitic. 
e mycelium is perennial in the soil and in the underground 
parts of the plant and so far as known the mycelium is sterile. 
The report aimed to present only those phases of the study 
which could be demonstrated by the herbarium specimens and 
the et eae te which were shown 
Dr. N. L. on exhibited a specimen of Cereus hexagonus 
just coming into fe and remarked on the generic character 
of the perianth being deciduous from the top of the ovary; in 
most related genera it is withering-persistent. 
A. B. Stour. 
NOTES, NEWS AND COMMENT. 
Dr. J. A. Shafer recently spent several days at the Garden on 
his way to the West Indies where he will continue his botanical 
explorations in Cuba. 
