538 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [December 



spores from the vetch pods. By May 18 the edges of some of the leaves 

 were dead and a few pycnidia of Ascochyta were formed. In all of these 

 cases check host plants remained free from the disease. 



The ascospores are shot out from the asci on the absorption of water. 



observed in a number of cases. While 



My 



laceae, the behavior of the asci and spores is not the same in all species. 

 In this Sphaerella the outer, firm layer of the ascus wall is ruptured 

 or dissolved at the apex, and the inner, thin layer then stretches out 

 to three or four times the length of the mature ascus. When the spores 

 are shot out through the end of this inner membrane, either successively 

 or in a group, the inner membrane, which is very thin, collapses, w r hile 

 the outer layer of the wall, which does not stretch, usually remains 



firm. 



Ascochyta occurs, usually in abundance, on the vetch, pea, and 



Melilotus 



purpose 



species on these different hosts, studying the life history and interrela- 

 tionships on the different hosts, this problem was assigned in 19 10 to 

 Mr. R. E. Stone, a graduate assistant in the department of botany. 

 This w r ork is now completed and will shortly be published in the 

 Annates Mycologici. — George F. Atkinson, Cornell University, Ithaca, 

 NY. 



GAUTIERIA IN THE EASTERN UNITED STATES 



For many years before seeing a specimen of the genus Gautieria I 

 had longed to find one, since it occupies a rather unique position in 

 the Gasteromycetes, because it is the only representative of the group 

 in which a peridium is wanting. From the literature and illustrations 

 I had a fairly good concept of it, and each year wished that I might 

 have a specimen to exhibit to my classes, because it offers such an excel- 

 lent demonstration of the gleba of a gasteromycete without sectioning 

 or removing the peridium. 



On October 30, 1905, Dr. A. A. Allen, recently an assistant in the 

 department of zoology at Cornell University, who was then a Freshman, 

 brought into my laboratory a small plant about the size of a marble 

 which I at once recognized as Gautieria. He had collected it the previous 

 day while on a stroll through the woods on South Hill about three miles 



■ 



distant from the university. Seeing an old, half-decayed specimen of 

 Ganoderma applanatum lying on the ground, where it had fallen from 



