ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 777 



growing on tLe kidney bean, and having the characters of that 



described as Sclerotium compactum. Sown in sand they produced 



numerous Peziza-cuTpules easily identified as P. sclerotiorum Lib. 



The ascospores of this Peziza cultivated in various nutrient fluids 



produced an abundant mycelium, which gave rise to resting mycelia 



similar in all respects to those resulting from the mycelium springing 



from the ascospores of P. Fuckeliana. Very numerous experiments 



in culture failed to produce any conidiiferous form, but always 



sclerotia, which again gave birth to Pezfza-cupules. The cycle of 



development, as at present known, is therefore confined to — 



Ascospore 



I 

 Sclerotium 



I 

 Ascospore 



To this form it seems proper to confine Fuckel's name Sderotinia, 

 and to it therefore will belong the synonyms Sderotinia Lihertiana 

 Fuckel (Peziza sderotiorum Lib.), S. Kaiiffmanniana Tichom., and 

 perhaps P. Carreyana, Duriceiana, and Candolleana. 



Pnccinia Lojkajana.* — This very rare fimgus has at present been 

 found only in a locality in Hungary, from which it takes its name, 

 and in the Botanic Garden at Parma, where it is parasitic on Ornitho- 

 galum iimbellatum. G. Passerini has studied it in the latter situation, 

 where it forms elongated yellow spots on the leaves of the host, the 

 rupture of the epidermis exposing the brown spores ; the parasite 

 thus presenting the general appearance of belonging to the Ustilaginefe 

 rather than to the Uredineae. The leaves become deformed and 

 ultimately perish, and the infected plants are not known to flower. 

 Neither the stylospore nor the tecidio-form of the fungus has yet 

 been detected, so that its mode of propagation is involved in doubt. 

 The mycelium of this Puccinia would appear to difler from that of 

 all other species known in attacking the perennial parts, viz. the 

 bulbs rather than the annual parts of the plant, and thus being 

 enabled to persist through the winter, having the character of a 

 hibernating mycelium in common with Gymnosporangium fuscum 

 according to Cramer, and with Peridermium elatinum according to 

 De Bary. The development of the other metagenetic or secidial form 

 is therefore not indispensable to the propagation of the species. 



Septoria Castanese, the Chestnut-disease.f — The disease of the 

 chestnut-tree which recently made its appearance in Italy, | spread last 

 year with extraordinary rapidity, and is further described by A. Piccone. 

 In Liguria, and especially in the province of Genoa, he found the 

 trees everywhere attacked by it, almost entirely losing their leaves 

 early in the summer, and in consequence failing to develope their fruit. 

 He has no hesitation in attributing the malady to the attacks of a 

 parasitic fungus, Septoria Castaneoe Lev., on the leaves and also on 

 the branches. Its extraordinary development, which was most 



* Nuov. Giom. Bot. Ital., xiii. (1881) pp. 127-30. t Ibid., pp. 124-6. 



X See this Joiunal, ante, p. 282. 



