Xlvi PROCEEDIKGS OF THE 



De Bary's ' Beitrage zur Morphologie und Physiologie der 

 Pilze,' of which two parts have been published in a separate form 

 (in the second of which he was assisted by M. "Woronin), appeared 

 first in the Transactions of the Senckenberg Natural- History 

 Society. The first part contains observations on the genera IPro- 

 tomyces, FJiysoderma, Ewoascus, Phallus, and Syzygites. The 

 most interesting facts noticed in Protomyces are the hybernation 

 of the sporangia, and the copulation of the spores. Although 

 some few of the sporangia may germinate in the summer, by 

 far the greater number pass the summer without change, and, 

 remaining unchanged during the winter, do not commence growth 

 until the spring. They have great capacity for resisting cold ; 

 for in the neighbourhood of Freiburg in the winter of 1860-61, 

 when the temperature in January often fell below zero of 

 Tahrenheit, with hardly any snow, the sporangia which had 

 been exposed during the winter germinated freely in the spring. 

 Soon after the ejection of the spores from the sporangia, 

 they were seen to unite in pairs, in the manner long since ob- 

 served to occur in the spores of Tilletia. Exoascus is the name 

 given by Fuckel, in his ' Enumeratio Fungorum Nassovise,' to 

 the fungus which causes the strange disease which occurs in dif- 

 ferent species of Prunus. The disease is common in some parts 

 of Europe ; it causes a monstrous enlargement of the unripe 

 fruit ; and the Germans have a variety of names for it (Taschen, 

 Schoten, Norren, Hungerzwetschen). Dr. de Bary describes 

 and figures the difi'erent stages of the fungus, and concludes that 

 it is the primary cause of the disease in question. He is of 

 opinion that those authors who attribute the disease to the efiect 

 of weather happen only to have observed its occurrence in un- 

 favourable seasons, and have hastily concluded that the weather 

 was the cause, whereas more extended observation would have 

 shown them that it occurs in all seasons. With regard to the 

 systematic position of Exoascus, De Bary thinks it a true Dis- 

 comycete, and ingeniously suggests that it bears the same rela- 

 tion to Selvella, Spatliulea, &c. as SpJiceria typhina does to the 

 larger species of Cordyceps. The genus Exoascus is perhaps 

 unnecessary ; for (as Hoff"man has suggested) the plant described 

 by De Bary does not seem to differ from Ascomyces deformans of 

 Mont. & Drom. 



The observations on the PhaUoidese do not call for any special 

 remark ; and those on Syzygites are shortly to the effect that the 

 plant is a Hyphomycetoas fungus with double fructification, the 



