ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 
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byphis decumbentibus, lanuginosis tomentosis v. sericeis, ramosissimis, 
septatis ; sporocarpiis (oogoniis) pedicellatis, apicibus ramulorum innatis, 
corticatis. It is made up of the three genera Physomyces , Helico- 
sporangium, and Papulospora, the first being thus characterized : — 
Sporocarpio polysporo, sporis liberis, hyphis nuraerosis rugoso-corticato* 
Development of Pycnids.* — Sig. P. Baccarini classifies the pycnids 
of Fungi under two types — those with definite and those with indefinite 
development. The first type includes those forms in which the con- 
ceptacle is completely corticated, and is distinctly separated from the 
vegetative mycele. This includes the greater part of the Sphaerioideae ; 
and the principal differences observed with regard to the development 
of this form of pycnid relate to the greater or less vigour of the 
nutritive pseudo-parenchyme, to the rapidity of its resorption, and to the 
mode of formation of the cavity, whether lysigenous or schizogenous. 
The second type comprises those forms in which the basidiogenous 
hyphse maintain more or less connection during their activity with the 
vegetative mycele ; the cortical investment is then incomplete, and is 
constantly interrupted at the base of the peridium, and the formation of 
a nutritive pseudo-parenchyme is greatly reduced, or almost entirely 
suppressed. To this type belong various forms of Nectrioideae, Lepto- 
stromaceae, and Melanconieae. 
Non-crystallizable Lichen-pigments.j — In 120 species of lichen 
examined, Herr E. Bachmann finds as many as sixteen different uncrys- 
tallizable pigments, viz. five green, one blue, four red, and six brown, of 
all of which the microchemical reactions are given. These all occur 
imbedded in the cell-membrane, a few others as drops in the interior or 
as excretions. They are not distributed uniformly through the thallus, 
but are limited to certain portions, almost always the cortex, very rarely 
penetrating to the medullary layer ; the hyphae of the gonidial layer are 
never coloured. In the hymenium the asci are never coloured, the 
paraphyses rarely. The colour of lichens is not unfrequently concealed 
by a coating of calcium oxalate. Within the membrane of the hyphae, 
the pigment is always so distributed that the middle lamellae contain a 
larger quantity of it than the inner ones. 
The author has been unable to determine whether these pigments are 
formed from the activity of the protoplasm, or whether they arise in the 
cell-wall itself by metastasis. Their purpose appears to be to protect 
the organisms which contain them from unfavourable atmospheric con- 
ditions ; the pigment itself and the calcium oxalate often associated with 
it also affording a protection against consumption by snails and cater- 
pillars. 
Spicaria verticillata.J — M. C. Roumeguere states that in the neigh* 
bourhood of Toulouse the Chinese primroses, Olivias, and Begonias in 
the glass-houses are attacked by a mucedineous fungus, which appears 
to be Spicaria verticillata (Cord.) Harz. The hyphse are simple at 
their base, but above are divided into 3-5 branches ; the conids are oval 
and white, and measure 4 • 5 /x. 
* Nuov. Giorn. Bot. Ital., xxii. (1890) pp. 150-14. 
t Jahrb. f. Wiss. Bot. (Pringsheim), xxi. (1890) pp. 1-61 (1 pi. and 1 fig.). 
j Rev. Mycol., xii. (1890) pp. 70-1. 
1890. 2 z 
