SSS. jSrnSf J i'he Su;pposed Cholera Fungus, IB 
some 7000 numbers of fungi fi:om North and South Carolina not a 
single one occurs on rice. 
His argument, moreover, as to the eastern origin of Tilletia, as 
though it were confined to wheat, was entirely overthrown by the 
fact that it occurs on decidedly European grasses, from which it 
might as easily be derived to wheat, as from wheat to these grasses, 
and that a distinct species occurs on wheat in the United States, 
which is not known in any other country. 
His experiments, moreover, were conducted in such a way as to 
make it almost impossible to say whether any particular form was 
derived from some especial spore, without which it is clearly pre- 
mature to arrive at any plausible conclusion. 
There is, indeed, no doubt that from the spores of a particular 
fungus, under different circumstances very different forms of fructi- 
fication may occur, a fact with which every mycologist is familiar ; 
but these forms are in general mere modifications, as was shown in 
the * Journal of the Linnean Society ' in an article on the Fungus- 
foot of India ; while some, as the so-called Torulse, have no title to 
the name of true fructification at all, but are rather analogous to 
gemmae, as is the case with the so-called yeast plant. It is also 
quite true that in the same species we may have two or more dis- 
tinct forms of fructification ; and few matters are more interesting 
than to trace out the connection of many so-called genera with the 
more normal form, as has been done so successfully by the Messrs. 
Tulasne; but this is a totally different thing from the transfor- 
mation of one genus into another. Indeed there is not a single 
case indicated by Dr. Hallier which is entitled to the same praise 
as the numerous cases demonstrated by those authors. An atten- 
tive perusal of the report of what Drs. Cunningham and Lewis saw 
at De Bary's, and the instructions derived from him, as well as that 
of their conference with Dr. Halher, will be quite sufficient to 
make us receive Dr. Hallier's views with much less attention than 
they have attracted in certain quarters. 
It is quite possible to follow the development of a single spore, 
as is indicated in the article Yeast in the * Encyclopaedia of Agri- 
culture,'* though this has been called in question by De Bary. It 
is true that if certain minute bodies be insolated from yeast, we 
may not always be certain that they are not derived from some 
quarter extraneous to the yeast itself; but if we get them to fruc- 
tify, we shall at least have some certain information as to the 
different phases which have been assumed by a particular fungus, 
and it will be found that the medium in which the fructification 
takes place will make an immense difference. If we repeatedly 
* The same method was pursued to ascertain the real nature of the little Scle- 
rotium which is so common in onions, as indicated in an article in the ' Journal of 
the Royal Horticultural Society of London.' 
