Crosslaiid : The Study of Fungi in Yorkshire. 153 



young men are coming forward who may, in time, make an 

 impression on their respective districts. 



The work done in Yorkshire, hitherto reviewed, is, with the 

 exception of Soppitt's researches, in the Uredinaceae mostly 

 systematic. This side of nature study has its place, and 

 always must have, if we are going to keep any sort of order 

 or arrangement in natural history objects. This is everywhere 

 admitted in all branches of natural science. Still, the study of 

 fungi, or any other object, from a biological standpoint, is of 

 much higher importance, and more deeply interesting, than 

 their simple classification. I have never attempted any work 

 in this direction myself, but have always taken a deep interest 

 in the work of those who have, whenever published results have 

 come within my reach, and I look to those possessing the 

 necessary qualifications and equipment, to take it in hand. 

 There are any number of problems awaiting solution. 



Immense advance on both morphological and biological 

 lines, in the study of fungi, were made on the Continent by the 

 brothers Tulasne, Dr. Anton de Bary, Dr. Oskar Brefeld, and 

 others, during the third quarter of last century ; and later, in 

 this country, by a disciple of De Barj^s — Dr. Marshall Ward. 

 Prior to this (in the second quarter of the century), the Rev. 

 M. J. Berkeley — the Prince of British Mycologists — began 

 laying the foundations, and suggesting points in the super- 

 structure of this high-class work in the Ann. Nat. Hist. ; Journal 

 Hort. Soc. ; Gard. Chron. ; etc., and 'secured the great honour 

 of being the founder of the important science known to-day as 

 Vegetable Pathology.' 



Mr. Harold Wager, F.R.S., F.L.S., etc., one of the members 

 of the Mycological Committee has, at various times during the 

 last eighteen years, conducted original research work on nuclei, 

 and nuclear-division in fungi. The results have been published, 

 and each article elaborately illustrated in the Annals of Botany. 

 The following is a summary : — 



(i). Observations on the structure of the Nuclei in Peronospora 

 parasitica, and on their behaviour during the formation of 

 the Oospore. (Ann. Botany, 1889). 



[In this paper is announced the discovery that in the 

 Fungi, the nuclei divide by a process of mitosis as in higher 

 plants, and that there is a true sexuality accompanied by 

 the fusion of two nuclei] . 



3908 April I. 



