17 
flexibility and adaptability of living protoplasm to conditions 
apparently unfavorable in the highest degree. 
About one month after the paint has been applied it begins to 
be dotted with small pink specks that increase in size, and finally 
turn purple. These blood-stain like blotches grow until they are 
several inches in diameter, and, of course, by this time have 
completely ruined the appearance of the painted structures. 
The spores are now produced in dark red, warty, fruiting bodies 
and are then liable to infect any other paint in the vicinity. 
Several greenhouse painters in England complain of serious losses 
through this agency. 
When the spores of the fungus are sown on wet white paint 
they germinate readily and in a few weeks produce all the char- 
acteristic effects observed in the infected greenhouses. Upon 
pure linseed oil the spores germinate and grow for a time, but 
no fruit or pigment is produced. Furthermore, upon pure white 
lead there was no germination at all; so, both the oil and white 
lead seem to be necessary for the full development of the plant. 
The bright red pigment is produced in oily red drops inside a 
colorless cell wall. The nature of this pigment is unknown, but 
the author's suggestion that it may be due to the formation of 
the red oxide of lead hardly seems tenable, judging from his 
description of it or from the fact that it is bleached by hydrogen 
peroxide. Finally it was found that paint made up to contain 
two per cent. of carbolic acid was wholly free from infection with 
the organism. Неге we see lead playing the part of a favorable 
medium for the growth of this fungus gnd carbolic acid acting 
as a fungicide.—E. D. С. 
In discussing the origin of species in nature Dr. Henry Huss 
(American Naturalist for November) says: "Whoever can devote 
a part of his time to the study of a genus is able to establish the 
existence of differences, which, formerly ignored and in themselves 
slight, are of the greatest importance for the tracing of relation- 
ships." 
Differences between the leaves of old and young shoots, 
variations shown by leaves of fruiting branches and adventitious 
