ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICKOSCOPY, ETC. 291 



Parasitic Fungus on the Red-currant.* — J. A. Baumler describes 

 a fungus which brings about great destruction of bushes of Mibes 

 ruhrum, causing the entire fall of the leaves. He finds the disease 

 to be due to the attacks of Gloeosporium Ribes (often accompanied by 

 an ErysipJie) identical with that found by Fischer on the gooseberry. 



Fungi of the Vine and Willow, t — F. v. Thiimen describes a 

 disease of the vine known as " Pilzgrind," which has in recent years 

 been very destructive to the vines in S. Tyrol, Dalmatia, and espe- 

 cially in Koumania. The cause he believes to be the combined action 

 of late frosts, and of a fungus belonging to the genus Fusisporium, 

 probably either F. Biasolettianum or F. Zavianum. 



The fungi described as parasitic on willows belong to the 

 UredinesB, Pyrenomycetes, Gymnomycetds, and Discomycetes. 



Monascus, a New Genus of Ascomycetes.:J: — P. Van Tieghem 

 describes two species of a new genus of Ascomycetes found upon 

 boiled sections of potato, &c. The septated and much-branched 

 mycelium forms a loose felt on the substratum and on neighbouring 

 substances. Vegetative multiplication takes place by conidiophores, 

 from which are abstricted rows of small roundish conidia. The asci 

 originate as lateral branches of the mycelium which divide by numerous 

 septa. In the uppermost cell of each of these branches is produced 

 a single ascus. It swells up into a spherical form ; while from the 

 pedicel-cells beneath the ascus, branches begin to grow upwards 

 which approach one another above the ascus, and, by lateral shoots, 

 form a dense envelope around it. This, however, is not regarded by 

 Van Tieghem as the process of conjugation, but rather as forming a 

 nutritive tissue, as in Aspergillus and Erysiplie. In one species, 

 Monascus ruber, this envelope lies nearly close to the rudiment of the 

 ascus ; while in the second species, M. mucoroides, there is a consider- 

 able space between the two. The ascus contains eight ascospores. 

 The fertile fructification resembles the sporangium of Mucor. 



Van Tieghem places Monascus among the Perisporiaceae, and the 

 tribe Perisporieae near to Apiosporium and Cystciheca. 



Relations of Two Cecidomyians to Fungi.§ — W. Trelease has 

 observed on the fructifications of several Uredineae, both on the 

 aecidium- and the uredo-generations, minute orange-red insects, which 

 proved to be the larval condition of a Cecidomyia. These larvae feed 

 on the spores of the fungus, are extremely voracious, and seem to 

 perform a useful function in restraining the spreading of the fungus. 



In another instance he found that the galls on certain species of 

 Aster and Solidago were produced only by the concurrent action of 

 an insect, Cecidomyia carhonifera, and of fungi, Bhytisma Solidaginis 

 and JB. Asteris, the mycelium of the fungus entering the tissues of 

 the host only after they have been pierced by the insect. 



* Oester. Bot. Zeitschr., xxxiv. (1884) pp. 327-8. 



t Verlag K.K. Versuchsstation Wein- u. Obstbau zu Klostemeuburg. See 

 Oester. Bot. Zeitschr., xxxiv. (1884) p. 443. 



t Bull. Soc. Bot. France, xxxi. (1884) pp. 226-30. 

 § Psyche, iv. (1884) pp. 195-200. 



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