rort] CURRENT LITERATURE 75 
able to a wider group of readers by publishing an abridged account in German.’ 
While the paper contains little that is essentially new, it gives an excellent 
account of the biology of the collective species Puccinia graminis as observe 
by the author in Russia. The account is valuable for comparison with similar 
_ observations made in other regions, for it is possible that the ecological and 
biological routine of development of the grain rusts is not the same in all 
regions. An illustration of this possibility is found in the present paper in 
reference to the different sources of infection of new grain in spring in Russia 
and in the United States. 
JACZEWSKI attributes the primary infection of wheat in spring entirely 
to aecidiospores from barberry. In the plains of the middle west, where bar- 
berry bushes are rare or do not occur at all over rust areas, both BottEy and 
CARLETON have found that the fungus is carried through the winter by means 
of surviving uredospores. In Russia JAczEwSKI finds that none of the uredo- 
spores survive through the winter, either on the straw or on living plants; nor 
does the mycelium of the fall survive on seedling wheat, for when infected seed- 
lings are covered with glass cases they remain free from rust the following 
summer. These experiments, as well as some similar ones with older rhizones 
of wheat and orchard grass, the author regards as disproving the validity of 
ERIKsSON’s mycoplasm theory 
As to the spermatia, the author differs from the usual cytological inter- 
pretation of considering them as male cells, and considers them to be of the 
nature of conidia. It must be admitted that there is as much evidence for one 
view as for the other. Their persistency and universal occurrence he thinks 
is an objection to regarding them as functionless organs. 
_ Of particular interest is the long series of cultures of uredospores on different 
grasses. The results are tabulated in a manner easily comprehended. A 
comparison of his own results with those of others suggests the possibility 
that the degree of specialization of form-species of rusts to certain hosts may not 
be the same for all regions, but may depend upon local conditions.—H. Has- 
SELBRING, 
Lipoids and respiration.—By extracting wheat germs with various sol- 
vents of lipoids, and then determining the carbon dioxid evolved from the germs 
during a given period of time, PALLADIN and STANEWITSCH? seek to establish 
a relation between respiratory activity and the lipoid content of plants. The 
germs were extracted with a given solvent until nothing was removed by new 
quantities of the solvent. The solvent was then removed and the germs were 
placed on filter paper and soaked in water for 30 minutes, after which they . 
8 JaczEwskI, A. von, Studien iiber das Verhalten des emer des Getreides 
in Russland. Zeitschr. Pflanzenkrank. 20:321-359. figs. 8 
9 PALLapin, W., and Stanewirscu, E., Die nauk i Pflanzenatmung 
von den Lipoiden. Biochem. Zeitschr. 26: 351-369. 1910. 
