NATURE OF FUNGI. 3 
affirmed that the outer coat in some of these productions con- 
tained so much carbonate of lime that strong effervescence took 
place on the application of sulphuric acid. Dr. Henry Carter 
is well known as an old and experienced worker amongst 
amoeboid forms of animal life, and, when in Bombay, he devoted 
himself to the examination of the Myzxogastres in their early 
stage, and the result of his examinations has been a firm 
conviction that there is no relationship whatever between the 
Mysxogastres and the lower forms of animal life. De Bary has 
himself very much modified, if not wholly abandoned, the views 
once propounded by him on this subject. When mature, and 
the dusty spores, mixed with threads, sometimes spiral, are 
produced, the Afyxogastres are so evidently close allies of the 
Lycoperdons, or Puffballs, as to leave no doubt of their affinities. 
It is scarcely necessary to remark that the presence of zoospores 
is no proof of animal nature, for not only do they occur in the 
white rust (Cystopus), and in such moulds as Peronospora,* but 
are common in alge,-the vegetable nature of which has never 
been disputed. 
There is another equally important, but more complicated 
subject to which we must allude in this connection. This is 
the probability of minute fungi being developed without the 
intervention of germs, from certain solutions. The observations 
of M. Trécul, in a paper laid before the French Academy, have 
thus been summarized:—l. Yeast cells may be formed in the 
must of beer without spores being previously sown. 2. Cells of 
the same form as those of yeast, but with different contents, 
arise spontaneously in simple solution of sugar, or to which a 
little tartrate of ammonia has been added, and these cells are 
capable of producing fermentation in certain liquids under 
favourable conditions. 3. The cells thus formed produce Peni- 
cillium like the cells of yeast. 4, On the other hand, the spores 
of Penicillium are capable of being transformed into yeast.t 
The interpretation of this is, that the mould Penicillium may be 
“De Bary, ‘‘Recherches sur le Developpement de quelques Champignong 
Parasites,” in ‘Ann. des Sci. Nat.” 4 sér. (Bot.) xx. p, 5, 
+ ‘‘Popular Science Review,” vol. viii. p. 96. 
