756 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
trays, are deposited in the warmest parts of the cellar. In 10-12 hours 
more the grains are again worked up, and are then cooled and moistened 
with a little water; in about ten hours this is repeated, and after 
14-16 hours the koji is ready. The whole process lasts about two and 
a half days. 
Torula spongicola.* * * § — Sig. U. Martelli describes a parasitic fungus 
which causes dark spots on the surface of a toilet-sponge, or sometimes 
colours the whole surface. The discoloration is caused by the 
mycele, the spores apparently retaining their vitality for a very long 
period. 
Parasitism of Tichothecium.f — Herr C. Maule has followed out the 
development of TicJiothecium microcarpon, which appears in the form of 
black dots on lichens belonging to the genus Callopisma. From the mode 
of their occurrence he concludes that the spores cannot have found their 
way into the mature lichen from the outside, but must have reached its 
fructification at the time of its first formation. He further observed the 
remarkable fact that the spores of Tichothecium never germinate in 
the thallus of the lichen, nor in the neighbourhood of the gonids, but 
only in the fructification, where alone they appear to find the requisite 
supply of food-materials, apparently in the transformation of the 
cellulose of the vegetative hyphaa into the “ fungus-cellulose ” of the 
asci. 
Puccinise parasitic on Veronica.^ — Dr. P. Magnus describes four 
species of Puccinia parasitic on various species of Veronica in Europe, 
viz. P. Veronicse Schrot., P. Veronicarum DC., P. Albulensis sp. n., 
and P. Veronicse Anagallidis Oudem. All these species form only teleuto- 
spores and sporids on their promycele ; and all, except doubtfully the 
last, belong to the section Leptopuccinia , in which the teleutospores germi- 
nate as soon as they are ripe ; some of them have also deciduous thick- 
walled teleutospores which do not germinate immediately on maturity, 
as occurs also with other species of Leptopuccinia. 
iEcidioform of Uredinese on two different hosts.§ — Herr P. Dietel 
finds, from culture experiments, that the secidia parasitic on Hippuris 
vulgaris and on Slum latifolium, known as JEcidium Hippuridis and 
2E. Sii latifolii respectively, are both genetically connected with Uromyces 
lineolatus , parasitic on Scirpus maritimus. 
Fungus-parasites of the Onion.[| — Mr. R. Thaxter gives further 
description of the life-history of Urocystis Cepulse, and of the injury 
inflicted by it on the onion-crop in the United States. Infection appears 
to take place entirely during early stages of the host, and from spores 
contained in the soil. The spores certainly retain their vitality for five, 
and possibly even for twenty years. 
Peronospora Schleideni is also very destructive to the onion-crop in 
Connecticut, and is frequently followed by Macrosporium Sarcinula. 
* Nuov. Giorn. Bot. Ital., xxii. (1890) pp. 463-5. 
+ Ber. Deutsch. Bot Gesell., viii. (1890) pp. 113-7 (1 pi.). 
X T. c„ pp. 167-74 (1 pi.). 
§ Hedwigia, xxix. (1890) pp. 149-52. 
|| Ann. Rep. Connecticut Agric. Exp. Stat. for 1889, pp. 127-77 (3 pis.). See 
Bot. Centralbl., xliii. (1890) p. 30. 
