ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 81 



quercina, aerea, Helva, and fidiginosa. They are found on all sorts of 

 ternary compounds, starch, dextrine, sugar, paper, tannin, &c., and 

 may be cultivated on gelatine, gluten, and bread, but not apparently 

 on meat. They are extremely abundant on grapes, and on other 

 edible commodities, the species being especially S. nigra, carbonaria, 

 and fuUginosa, while S. glauca is found in wine. Glycerin is ex- 

 tremely prejudicial to their growth, and may be used to prevent 

 their appearance. The spores have a great power of resistance to 

 cold ; and, when once established, these moulds are very difficult to 

 extirpate. 



Oospores of Phytophthora infestans.* — M. Cornu has reinvesti- 

 gated the vexed question of the oospores of Phytophthora {Pero- 

 nospora) infestans, which have not yet been recognized with certainty. 

 The bodies described by W. G. Smith as the sexual spores of the 

 Phytophthora, Cornu agrees with de Bary in regarding as in reality 

 the oospores of a Pythium. Caspary and Berkeley, on the other hand, 

 regarded as the true oospores of Phytophthora the bodies described by 

 Montague under the name Artotrogus hydnosporus, a conclusion 

 doubted by de Bary on the ground of their alleged identity with 

 similar bodies found on the turnip. Cornu shows, however, that this 

 latter parasite is altogether different from that of the turnip. The 

 bodies described as Artotrogus are of two kinds, one echinated, the 

 other not. The former of these Cornu considers in all probability to 

 be the oospores either of Phytophthora, or of some Saprolegnia at 

 present unknown. 



Peronospora viticola.f — E. Prillieux, after pointing out the 

 known existence of conidia or summer-spores, and oosjpores or winter- 

 spores, states that he has been able to convince himself, during the 

 course of a mission undertaken under the instructions of the Minister 

 of Agriculture, that there is no doubt as to the " prodigiously 

 abundant formation of winter-spores " in various parts of France. 

 The quantity of these small bodies which may be found in one dry 

 leaf appears to be enormous (200 per square millimetre). Not 

 much harm is done in dry weather, but when the seasons are wet 

 the author thinks that all the vine-leaves should be collected and 

 burnt. 



Vegetation of Fungi in Oil.J — P. Van Tieghem some years since 

 observed the development of flakes of mycelium in a bottle of olive 

 oil; this was due to two germs; one not cultivable on slices of 

 potato, the other identified as very nearly allied to Verticillium cin- 

 nabarinum. Immersion of seeds or pieces of the higher plants, 

 covered with mycelium growth, in the same medium, and placing in 

 an atmosphere at about 25° C, produced after a few days a plentiful 

 growth of mycelium over these bodies, on the surface of the oil, and 

 at any points at which spores had been left in contact with the air. 

 It is established that the oil is absolutely necessary to the life of the 



* Bull. Soc. Bot. France, xxviii. (1881) pp. 102-9. 

 t Comptes Rendus, xciii. (1881) pp. 752-3. 

 t Bull. Soc. Bot. France, xxvii. (1880) p. 353. 

 Ser. 2.— Vol. II. ^ 



