ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 99 



Kefir.* — Sig. G. Arcangeli has investigated the source of this intoxi- 

 cating drink prepared in the Caucasus by the fermentation of cows' milk. 

 The ferment is sold in the form of tubercle-like bodies from 1 mm. to 

 1 cm. in diam.j of a yellow colour and horny consistency. These pre- 

 serve their activity for a long period, and induce fermentation in milk 

 in twenty-four hours at the ordinary temperature. Arcangeli agrees 

 with Kern "f that the ferment is a cultural form of Saccharomyces cerevisise, 

 closely resembling S. minor. He was unable to detect with certainty 

 the presence oi Bacillus acidi-lactici. The organism described by Fliigge 

 and others as Dispora caucasica, he believes to be a form of Bacillus 

 suhtilis, which, coming in contact with the grains of kefir, has the power 

 of peptonizing the albuminoids and determining the partial solution of 

 the casein. 



New Type of Hymenomycetes.l — Under the name Hymenoconidium 

 petasatum, Herr H. Zukal describes a new fungus found on rotting 

 leaves and fruits of the olive under a glass bell. Eesembling somewhat 

 a minute Marasmius, it yet differs in some respects from all hitherto 

 known hymenomycetous fungi. The hymenium clothes the upper 

 convex side of the pileus in the form of a smooth layer. The densely 

 packed club-shaped basids (?) bear each a single brownish spore with 

 spinous thickenings. The spore is not formed by budding nor from 

 a sterigma, but by the cutting off of the upper swollen portion of the 

 basid (?) by a septum ; the lower portion becoming the sporophore, the 

 upper portion the spore. All attempts to cause the spores to germinate 

 were unsuccessful. The author believes Hymenoconidium to present a 

 type of very simply organized Hymenomycetes, in which the conidio- 

 phore has not become specialized into basids. 



TJstilago Treubii.§ — Graf zu Solms-Laubach describes this new 

 species, which forms small wart-like excrescences on Polygonium chinense 

 in Java, with a curved stalk and dark violet ustilago-spores. It causes 

 the production of abnormal wood in the cambium. The spores are 

 separated from one another by vertical rows of parenchymatous cells 

 which are connected above and below with the closed tissue. When the 

 spores are ripe they burst through the outermost layer of the tissue, 

 and these columns project in the form of a capillitium-like structure 

 which promotes the dissemination of the spores by protecting them from 

 moisture, and thus preventing their germination before they are scattered. 

 The spores are about 4 /* in diameter, and germinate in the ordinary 

 way, producing a promycele which is usually short and unicellular, on 

 which are borne terminal or lateral sporids which conjugate before the 

 germination of the filament. The pathological structures produced by 

 this parasite bear a strong resemblance to galls. 



SaprolegniesB.ll — A posthumous fragment on this subject by Prof. 

 A. de Bary is published by Graf zu Solms-Laubach. Four new genera 

 are briefly described, viz. : —(1) Leptolegnia ; resembling Saprolegnia, 



* Nuov. Gioru. Bot. Ital., xx. (1888) pp. 381-7. 

 t Cf. this Journal, 1882, p. 383. 



I Verhandl. K. K. Zool.-Bot. Gesell. Wien, xxxviii. (1888). See Biol. 

 Centralbl., viii. (1888) p. 513. 



§ Ann. Jard. Bot. Buitenzorg, vi. (18S8) pp. 79-92 (1 pi.). See Bot. Centralbl., 

 xxxvi. (1888) p. 67. 



II Bot. Ztg,, xlvi. (1S88) pp. 597-610, 613-21, 629-36, 615-53 (2 pis.). 



H 2 



