638 SUMMARY OF CUERENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



with that genus in the separability of the spores. The following is 

 the diagnosis : — 



Neoshofitzia n. g. Stroma nullum. Perithecia gregaria, super- 

 ficialia, globosa, astoma, interdvmi tenuissime perforata, membranacea, 

 rigida, nee collabescentia, dilute colorata nee atra. Asci cylindracei 

 aut lineares, brevissime stipitati, 8-spori. Sporaa e cellulis duabus 

 mox vel tandem decadentibus compositge, recte aut oblique monostichaB, 

 hyalina3 demum fuscescentes. Paraphyses liberie aut subcoalitse, 

 filiformes, crassiusculfe. 



Two species are described, Neoshofitzia verruculosa and N. pallida. 



Fungus-parasite of the Sycamore.* — Von Thiimen has carefully 

 examined the fungus first described by Hartig,f which attacks and 

 kills seedlings of the sycamore. 



When attacked they show a number of small black specks on the 

 cotyledons and first foliage leaves, which afterwards appear covered 

 by a grey felted coating. This consists of the numerous conidio- 

 phores of Cercospora acerina. The conidia are formed in numbers up 

 to six on the conidiophore, are of a long clavate form, with an acumi- 

 nate apex, colourless, and furnished with numerous septa. After the 

 formation of spores has gone on for a time, the mycelium passes over 

 into a resting condition in the interior of the host. Its branches 

 swell up, divide continually, and thus is formed either a moniliform 

 filament or a more complicated brown tissue which may be regarded 

 as a simple form of sclerotium. In this condition the fungus may 

 remain for a year ; after which the mycelia again germinate and pro- 

 duce new conidiophores. The fungus may be cultivated in artificial 

 nutrient fluids, as the juices of fruits. 



Myxomycetes or Mycetozoa. — In an appendix to the first volume 

 of the ' Manual of Infusoria,' pp. 470-2, Mr. W. S. Kent replies to 

 Dr. M. C. Cooke's criticism | of his view that these forms exhibit so 

 close an affinity with the typical Flagellate Infusoria that they cannot 

 be retained among the Fungi but must be advanced to a position 

 among the Protozoa, not far from the Spongida.§ 



As the result of a personal investigation of the developmental 

 phenomena of several Myxomycetan types, including more especially 

 the cultivation of the spores of Physarum tussilaginis, Mr. Kent is 

 " prepared even more confidently than hitherto to support the animal 

 interpretation of their nature and afiinities." Among the Protozoa 

 their correlation may, he thinks, be accomplished with the greatest 

 ease, their entire life-cycle being precisely parallel in kind to what 

 obtains among the ordinary Flagellate Infusoria, though difiering in 

 degi-ee. A primary flagelliferous phase, an intermediate repent, 

 amoeboid condition, and a final encysted sporiferous state, these three 

 represent the normal life-cycle of either a Myxomycetan or a simple 

 Monadiform Animalcule. The only distinction manifested on the 



* Centralbl. f. d. des Forstwesen, 1880, No. x. See Hedwigia, xx. (1881) 

 p. 63. 



t See this Journal, ante, p. 84. J Ibid., p. 288. 



§ A more elaborate rejily was published by Mr. Kent in Pop. Sci. Review, 

 v. (1881) pp. 97-llC (2 pis.). 



