Botany. 737 
BOTANY.: 
THE GENUS TAPHRINA OF TULANE.—This genus (Ezoascus of 
Fuckel) of curiously simplified Ascomycetes, is an interesting one 
for the comparative anatomist, affording as it does such a remark- 
able instance of structural degradation through parasitism. 2B 
Winter (Krypt-Flora v. Deutschland, Oesterreich u. d. Schweiz. 1* 
Band, 2 Abth., pp. 2-11) the genus was made the principal one 
of the first order (Gymnoascex) of the class Ascomycetes. | He 
divided the Gymnoascew into two families, viz.: (1) Exoasci and 
(2) Gymnoasci, the first including the genus under consideration 
(under Fuckel’s name, Exoascus), and the second, the related gen- 
era, Endomyces, Eremascus, Gymnoascus and Ctenomyces. 
e extreme simplicity of these plants, composed as they are of 
little more than single parasitic asci, marks to a great extent their 
relationship to the larger Ascomycetes. Parasitism has here 
brought about an almost complete atrophy of the plant body, as in 
the vine rapes (Rafflesiacee), among the parasitic Phanerogams 
the plant body is almost entirely suppressed, leaving only the large 
flower bud which grows directly from its hort. ‘ 
The genus has been recently made the object of study by a 
Swedish student, C. J. Johanson of MS esa who has distinguished 
twenty-one Scandinavian species, as follows :— 
Taphrina pruni Tul. (Exoaseus pruni Fkl.). 
ia ‘tues Tul. (Ezoascus bullatus Fkl.; Ascomyces bullatus 
rk.), 
T. insititiæ Johans. ( Exoascus insititie Sadebeck). 
T. deformans Tul. (Exoascus deformans Fkl.; Ascomyces defor- 
mans Berk.). 
T. nana Johans. ; 
r Sapientia Johans. (Exoascus deformans Fkl.; var. potentille 
arl. 
sai alnitorqua Tul. (Ascomyces tosquinetii Westd.). 
T. betulina Rostrup (Ezoaseus turgidus Sadebeck). 
T. alpina Johans. 
T. borealis Johans. pi 
T. aurea Fries (Exoascus aureus Sadebeck ; E. populi Thüm.). 
T. sadebeckii Johans, (Exoascus flavus Sadebeck). 
T. betule Johans. (Ezoascus ‘betule Fkl.; Ascomyces betuloe 
nus 
T, rhizophora Johans. 
! Edited by Prof. Chas. E. Bessey, Lincoln, Neb, 
* Kong. Vetenskaps-Akademie. Band 13. Afd. III. No. 4. 
