Nf.vvs and Notes 
89 
of Abisko, and with the Scandinavian species of Exobasidium 
growing on the Ericaceae. Taphrinalapponica, on Betula odorata, 
is described as new. 
C. Wehmer has experimented for some time with dry rot caused 
by Mcrulius lacrymans (IMyc. Centralbl. i: 138-148, 166-174. 
1912) and he has found that the growth of this fungus in cultures 
may he hindered or stopped by the addition of 0.5 to 5 per cent, 
tannic acid, and that pine wood may be protected by a i to 2 per 
cent, solution. 
The October number of Annales Mycologici contains an article 
on the fungi of the soil by Elizabeth Dale, of Girton College, Cam- 
bridge. More than thirty species distributed among twenty genera 
were obtained from two samples of soil taken from plots on the 
Royal Agricultural Society’s farm at Woburn. The results of 
similar studies made in this country show a striking similarity to 
those made in England. 
According to the investigations of A. W. Drost, the Panama 
disease of the Jamaica banana is caused by the fungus Lepto- 
spora Miisac and the disease was present in Surinam before this 
banana was introduced. The fungus lives in the ground for. a 
long time and has been found to attack different varieties of 
banana, so that soil once infected with the fungus becomes unfit 
for banana culture. 
Mr. C. R. Orton, for the last year and a half assistant in botany 
at the Indiana Experiment Station, resigned on January i to 
become plant pathologist and assistant professor of botany in the 
Pennsylvania State College. Mr. Orton was engaged in the inves- 
tigation of plant rusts while at the Indiana Station. His place 
will be temporarily filled by IVIr. J. P>. Demaree, who recently 
resigned his position as assistant in botany at the Ohio Experi- 
ment .Station. 
