306 Canadian Record of Science. 



An Hour's Botanizing on the Mountain Side. 



By John Deakxess. 



On the 8th and 9th November, 1898, the Ontario 

 Entomological Society, at the invitation of the Montreal 

 Branch, held its annual meeting in the Eoyal city, the 

 date being the twenty-fifth anniversary of the foundation 

 of the Branch just named. On the morning of the 9th, 

 the mountain side afforded an advantageous position to 

 watch the sun lise. The weather was delightful, the air 

 comparatively clear, and not too cool to be pleasant, — a 

 dry, clear, bracing morning. 



If there were any insects on the wing, they were not 

 conspicuous enough to divert attention from the rich 

 fungal flora in the humid rearward slopes of the wooded 

 terraces. The bareness of the trees and shrubs rendered 

 the cryptogamic forms more noticeable. 



On the right of the path entering under the inclined 

 railway there were a few dilapidated shrubs, including blad- 

 der-nut {Stajjliylea trifolici). On some of the stems of 

 these shrubs, in a brush heap and on dead erect branches, 

 there was a vigorous growth of three or four species of 

 fungus. One of them is related to .the black-knot of the 

 plum {Otthia or Plowrightia morhosa) at least so far as a 

 similar method of fruiting establishes relationship among 

 these forms. Whether the fungus on Staphylea like that 

 on plum has a parasitic stage I cannot say, but in the 

 stage of complete maturity both develop a stromatic layer 

 which ]:)ecomes thickly covered with fruit-balls, tecluiically 

 called perithecia. Eacli little shining, papillate globe 

 contains a large number of sacs standing among infertile 

 branches called paraphyses. Each sac or ascus contains 

 eight semi-transparent, centrally constricted spores. The 

 species on Staphylea is illustrated in Plate 41 of Ellis and 



