SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



i6g 



investigate the spores held in suspension in the 

 atmosphere. To elucidate these, he smeared with 

 glycerine the ordinary microscopic glass slide, 

 suspended these slides at different times and 

 elevations, and found on examination spores of 

 mosses, fungi and bacteria, amongst many others ; 

 thus showing that the air was full of germs capable 

 of growth upon a favourable habitat. This study 

 has at the present day grown to be an exact 

 science. 



Mr. Massee next passed to the work of the 

 brothers Tulasne, who issued their monumental 



tk, •' Selecta fungorum carpologia ea documenta 

 et icones potissimum exhibiens," from 1S61 to 1S65, 

 showing the life-history of many groups of fungi, 

 but their weak point was that they did not realize 

 the presence of fungal parasites. 



In 1S53 De Bary first started the theory that 

 fungi were descended from algal parents, and the 

 beginnings of fungi were to be found in Sap- 

 1, and numerous other aquatic genera, and 

 that they were descended from Vawheria, which 

 had given up its chlorophyll and become a parasite. 

 This undoubtedly was a downward proceeding, 

 because the parasite was dependent on the host ; 

 but now fungi, owing to their adaptability to the 

 environment, had to a great extent regained this 



OSS. 



Shortly after De Bary announced his discovery of 

 heteroecism in Puccinia graminis, which is another 

 form of Undo linearis and Accidium berberidis. De 

 Bary was also the first to inaugurate the pure 

 culture growths, which at the present day are 

 regarded as the sole reliable evidence of the life- 

 history of a fungus. These pure culture growths 

 consist in placing a single spore on sterilized media 

 from which all air or water is excluded unless 

 previously freed from all germs whatsoever by 

 special methods. De Bary further rejected the 

 ycetes from the domain of fungi because no 

 byphae were present. 



Lastly, we come to the researches of Brefeld, 

 - vols., who would like to classify every 

 fungus to one ideal cell, and argues that it is from 

 the very lowest form of any given fundus that we 

 obtain our highest forms, and shows that Ptycho- 

 gaster is the conidial form of our I'olyporeae, and 

 other conidial forms are forms of higher funt;i. 



•:'; then cited the smuts, Ustilagineae 

 which he said Brefeld had germinated in an 

 alkaline solution even after some years, an'! thai 

 the volution was equivalent to the host, the 

 budded by gemmation, and were in this respect 

 similar to Saccharomyce* . but the intercstii , 

 was that this gemmation could , 

 our manure heap*, but that infection oi thi 

 plant could only possibly I in two days, 



the first a- ifter germination, 



r.ly eioept: 



Mr. Massee then briefly referred to the theory of 

 sexual reproduction in the Basidiomycetes, which 

 had been advanced by Dangeard and others, but 

 dismissed it with the remark that no evidence in 

 support thereof had as yet been forthcoming. 



The election of officers for the ensuing season 

 was then proceeded with, and Mr. George Massee, 

 F.L.S., F.R.M.S., was unanimously elected Presi- 

 dent and Mr. Carleton Rea, B.C.L., M.A., was 

 elected Hon. Secretary and Treasurer. 



Miss Rose then exhibited a painting of a Copiinus 

 new to mycologists, recently found near Worcester, 

 called Copiinus roseotinctus, Rea, a technical de- 

 scription of which was furnished by Mr. Rea, and 

 which is characterized by the deep-coloured rose 

 meal on pileus and stem. 



On Wednesday, September 15th, the mycologists 

 explored the woods of Thoresby, and many 

 interesting forms of fungi were secured, the most 

 noticeable being in Budby Forest, where an 

 Entoloma ' new to the British fungus flora, E. 

 hirtophyUum , was discovered. 



The members visited Clumber on Thursday, 

 September 16th, and many specimens of fungi were 

 collected. In the evening Dr. C. B. Plowright 

 gave an interesting lecturette upon the difference 

 between Ustilago jenseni and U. hordei, which he 

 illustrated by dry specimens. He clearly showed 

 that these species of Ustilago, which have until 

 recently been confounded as one, were most distinct. 

 That the one was comparatively harmless, whilst 

 the other, mixed up in threshing, was a deadly 

 parasite. Mr. A. Clarke then read a Paper on 

 •' Photography as applied to Mycology." All were 

 agreed that no abler exponent of that side of 

 mycology could have been chosen to illustrate the 

 varied forms of mycologic life. The last day, 

 Friday, 17th, was devoted to an investigation of the 

 oldest portions of the forest, now called the 

 Birklands, and many interesting forms of fungi 

 were there secured by the members. 



Next autumn the British Mycological Society 

 will hold its annual fungus foray in Ireland, having 

 been invited to do so by the Dublin Natural 

 History Society. 



Carleton Rea. 

 i-l. ForegaU Strut, Worcester ; 

 October, 1897. 



Norfolk Glaciology. — We have received from 



Mr. \V. Jerome Harrison, F.G.S., of 52, Claremont 



Ha 'ih, I'.irminghain, a reprint from 



the " Glacialists' Magazine" a valuable paper, 



entitled " A Bibliography of Norfolk Glaciology." 



libliograpby includes the Cromer 1 liffs, with 



the forest - bed Series. The reprint occupies 



ninety-two pages, with an index and frontispiece. 



Mi Harrison, it will be remembered, about a 



piled a like llsl oi the 



1 the Midland counties. 



His plan includes a brief abstrai t from the papers 



d to. 



