294 SUMMARY OP CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



phorus Oosporam exhibens. Perithecia superficialia, sparsa, ostiolata, 

 contextu parenchymatico fuligineo setis vestita. Asci octospori, 

 pedicellati, aparaphysati. Sporse eximie triangulares, depresssB. Par- 

 tibus externis sat similis est Chsetomio a quo sporarum forma mox 

 dignoscitur." The only species, B. trigonospora, was found on hare's 

 dung. 



Tubercularia persicina Ditm.*— Prof. C. Gobi finds this fungus 

 associated with and parasitic on the secidia and spermogonia of 

 JBuccinia Poarum parasitic on Tussilago Farfara, and also in the 

 tissue of the leaves themselves, usually on the under side. The 

 pustule consists of a delicate mycelium composed of fine septated 

 much-branched hyphge, forming a weft which is especially dense im- 

 mediately beneath the epidermis. The spores are produced in great 

 numbers beneath the epidermis, which they push up and rupture; 

 but they do not constitute a powdery mass, being imbedded in a 

 hyaline mucilaginous jelly. The ripe spores are round, oval, or 

 pear-shaped, of a delicate lilac colour, with a thick smooth membrane, 

 and about 6 /x in diameter. In hot dry weather the formation of 

 spores is suppressed, and the fertile hyphse become divided by septa 

 and assume a lilac colour. This process advances from the periphery 

 of the pustule inwards, gradually forming a pseudo -parenchymatous 

 structure or sclerotium. In damp weather these sclerotia are repro- 

 ductive, putting out germ-tubes, from the ends of which conidia are 

 abstricted. The so-called " sporidia " are simply vegetative cells of 

 the promycelium, and have no sexual functions. 



The author found this fungus also on Sorhus Aucuparia, Paris 

 quadrifolia, and Cirsium oleraceum. Its true systematic position he 

 considers to be among the Ustilagineae, and proposes for it the 

 generic name Gordalia ; this genus and Entyloma forming together a 

 group with spores enveloped in mucilage, which represents a transi- 

 tion from the Ustilagineae to the Tremellini. 



Basidiobolus, a new genus of Entomophthorese.f — Dr. E. Eidam 

 describes a very peculiar fungus found on the excrement of frogs, 

 to which he gives the name Basidiobolus ranarum. The conidia are 

 produced singly on conidiophores elevated in the air ; beneath each 

 conidium is a swollen basidium, which, when ripe, is violently de- 

 tached along with the conidium, the conidium being again severed 

 from its basidium in the act of being thrown off. The conidia may 

 be germinated in a nutrient solution, and in two or three days again 

 produce on the mycelium conidiophores and an extraordinary number 

 of resting-spores. 



The resting-spores or zygospores are produced on the mycelial 

 filaments. Two adjacent cells on the same filament put out each a 

 beak-like protuberance close to the septiim between them, and become 

 gametes. One of the gametes always swells up to a spherical form 

 close to the septum, while the other remains small ; true conjugation 



* Mem. Acad. Imp. Sci. St. Petersbourg, xxxii. (1885) No. 14, 25 pp. (1 col. pi.). 

 t SB. Schles. Gesell. f. Vaterl. Cultur, Nov. 5, 1885, See Bot. Centralbl., 

 xxiv. (1835) p. 284. 



