754 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
Two new genera of Chytridiacese.* — Professor G. v. Lagerheim 
describes two new genera of Chytridiacese, which appear to demonstrate 
the near affinity of this family with the Ancylistese and Saprolegniaceae. 
Harpochytrium Hyalothecse was found parasitic on Hyalotheca 
dissiliens, not merely on the gelatinous sheath, but piercing the filament 
itself, which it kills. The ripe zoosporange is curved into the form of a 
sickle ; when the zoospores escape, a new cell is formed within the base 
of tbe sporange, which developes into a new zoosporange by a kind of 
prolification, a phenomenon hitherto known only in Pytliium and 
Saprolegnia. 
Achlyella Flahaultii was grown on pollen of TypTia. The contents 
of the flask-shaped sporange, which is attached externally to the pollen- 
grain, divide, as in Achlya , Aphanomyces , and Achlyogeton , into several 
portions, which escape as naked masses of protoplasm through an apical 
opening, before which they lie in heaps. Each of these masses finally 
invests itself with a thin membrane, through a small opening in which 
the protoplasm escapes as a ciliated zoospore. 
Ustilago Carbo.f — According to Herr E. Rostrup, no less than five 
distinct species are included under this name, comprising the parasitic 
fungi which cause “ smut ” in corn, viz. : — TJstilago Hordei on barley ; 
U. Jensenii sp. n. on Hordeum disticlion ; U. Avense on rye, U. perennans 
sp. n. on Arena elatior , the mycele being perennial in the rhizome ; and 
U. Tritici on wheat. 
Lophiostomaceae.J — Sig. A. N. Berlese discusses the systematic 
position and the classification of this family of Pyrenomycetes, dis- 
tinguished by the presence of a compressed ostiole which is furrowed 
longitudinally by a more or less open fissure, frequently very narrow, 
formed of two small lips. In the form of the ostiole some species 
approach the Sphaeriaceae, others the Hysteriaceae. The genera 
described by Saccardo are characterized by the author as follows : — 
Sporidia continua fusca Lophiella . 
Sporidia bilocularia fusca Schizostoma. 
hyalina Lophiosplisera. 
Sporidia transverse pluriseptata hyalina 
Perithecia pilosa Lophiotricha. 
Perithecia calva Lophiotrema. 
Sporidia transverse pluriseptata fusca .. Lophiostoma. 
Sporidia muriformia fusca Lophidium. 
hyalina Lophidiopsis. 
Sporidia filiformia Lophionema. 
The 213 species enumerated by Saccardo must, he thinks, be greatly 
reduced in number. The family exhibits an alliance with the Hysteri- 
aceae, the connecting link between the Pyrenomycetes and the Disco- 
mycetes, rather than with the SphieriaceaB, especially in the branched 
paraphyses. 
* Hedwigia, xxix. (1890) pp. 142-5 (1 pi.). 
t Bull. Acad. Roy. Copenhagen, 1890, No. 1, 16 pp. and 1 pi. 
X Malpighia, iv. (1890) pp. 40-55. 
