NOTES ON RECENT RESEARCH. 



235 



absence of any specific work on coprophilous or dung-borne fungi, many of 

 which, on account of being the most primitive representatives of their respec- 

 tive groups, are perhaps more interesting from a morphological than a purely 

 systematic standpoint. The absence of any specific work on these Fungi 

 makes this paper extremely valuable. It appears that they do not form a 

 concrete group, and cannot therefore be treated from a comparative point 

 of view ; but they do nevertheless present structural features which claim 

 attention. It is shown for Ascobolus that wholesale diffusion of the 

 spores by wind is out of the question. They are ejected — in common 

 with those of Ryparobius, Saccobolus, Sordaria, and Thclcbolus — in an 

 agglutinated mass. It appears that the spores from fungus on a given 

 piece of dung are ejected and alight on surrounding grass, which 

 is then eaten by some animal, and its dung in turn produces more fungi. 

 As a rule the various species are not confined to the dung of any particu- 

 lar animal. Many not unfrequently flourish on the same substratum, 

 and no fewer than seventy-two species have been recorded as growing on 

 the dung of rabbit. The investigations of the authors have shown that a 

 careful study of the fungi growing on the dung of various animals will in 

 all probability add many species to our mycologic flora. New genera and 

 a number of new species are here described. — B. I. L. 



Coprophilous Fungi, Researches on. Second paper. By George 

 Massee, F.L.S., and Ernest S. Salmon, F.L.S. (Ann. Bot. vol. xvi., No. 01, 

 p. 57 ; March 1902). — In the first paper allusion was made to the 

 generally accepted opinion that the spores of many coprophilous fungi 

 are capable of germination only after having passed through the alimentary 

 canal of an animal. No direct evidence of this had been recorded, save 

 by Janczewski. He had failed to germinate spores of Ascobolus fur- 

 furaceus on nutrient solutions, but on feeding a rabbit with bread con- 

 taining the spores found that they had germinated when the dung was 

 deposited. In order to investigate this point further the present authors 

 have carried out the following experiments : " A portion of the intestine; 

 of a recently killed rabbit containing dung was tied up at the two ends 

 before being removed from the body. The tied-up portion of the 

 intestine was then removed and placed in a sterilised vessel covered by 

 a bell-jar, the dung being exposed by cutting the skin of the intestine. 

 At the expiration of six days, during which period the bell-jar had not 

 been removed, the dung was covered with a profuse growth of PiUwra 

 anomala, Schroet., Pilobolus crystallinus, Tode, Mucor Mucedo, L., 

 Chcetocladium Joncsii, Fres., parasitic on the Mucor, and Coprinu* niveus, 

 Pers. A second portion of rabbit-dung obtained under conditions 

 similar to those described above yielded, at the expiration of a fortnight, 

 all the species enumerated above under the first experiment, and, in 

 addition, Gymnoascus Beessii, Baran., Humaria granulata, Sacc, 

 Sporormia intermedia, Wint., and Sordaria decijnens, Wint. A third 

 experiment conducted with sheep-dung, obtained directly from the intes- 

 tine as before, and only removed from it when placed under a bell-jar, 

 yielded Pilaira anomala, Schroet., Pilobolus crystallinus, Tode, Chceto- 

 cladium Jonesii, Fries., Ascobolus immersus, Pers., and a Hymenomycete 

 belonging to the genus Geotrichum, Pers. The above experiments con- 

 ducted with all possible care . . . prove conclusively that the various 



