652 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
of conids, very small ascigerous fructifications are produced, spherical 
and closed on all sides, within which are small ovoid asci, each contain- 
ing eight ascospores. It is distinguished from the Erysipheee by the 
mycele penetrating into the tissue of the host. 
“Hyphopodes” of Meliola.* — M. A. Gaillard describes peculiar 
swollen, stalked or sessile, alternate or opposite, appendages, on the 
filaments of the mycele of Meliola microspora , which bears the peritheces. 
To these structures he applies the term “ hyphopodes.” They are of 
two kinds, mucronate and capitate. He states that the latter are un- 
developed peritheces, the former arrested branches of the mycele. He 
considers that the occurrence of these structures confirms the view that 
all the hyphae are of equal morphological value, and that the various 
forms which they assume are adaptations to external conditions. He 
farther asserts the incorrectness of the ordinary view that the peritheces 
are the result of an interweaving of the mycelial hyphae. In M. coronata 
and tonkinensis he finds peritheces which have reverted to their vegeta- 
tive condition, and have remained sterile ; they had put out from their 
surface a large number of vegetative filaments which bear capitate 
hyphopodes. 
Sclerotium hydrophilum.t — The fungus to which this provisional 
name has been given occurs as a small black or dark yellow-brown 
sclerote springing from a delicate mycele, on various freshwater plants. 
Herr W. Rothert has investigated its structure and life-history, and 
finds it to differ from most other sclerotes in its central part being 
white and of a loose texture, with air-containing spaces. The cell- 
contents of this central portion consists of glycogen, and each cell 
usually contains only a single nucleus ; adjacent hyphae very frequently 
coalesce. The sclerotes germinate readily, and retain their power of 
germination for a long period. The mode of life of the fungus is 
saprophytic and apparently never parasitic. No other mode of propaga- 
tion was observed, the formation of spores of any kind being apparently 
entirely suppressed. 
Biology of Lichens.J — M. H. Jumelle goes into further details 
respecting his experiments on the gaseous interchange in lichens, and 
the influence of external conditions on their growth. He concludes 
that in all lichens, at least under favourable conditions, the energy of 
assimilation can, in the light, exceed that of respiration ; the algal con- 
stituent being apparently able to obtain a sufficient quantity of carbon 
from the atmosphere, independently of the substratum. In the dark, 
on the other hand, the volume of carbon dioxide produced is always less 
than that of oxygen absorbed, the value of the proportion 
C0 2 
0 
being 
uniformly about 0*8, or nearly that which occurs in fungi generally. 
All lichens have the property of becoming desiccated without 
* Bull. Soc. Mycol. France, vii. (1891) pp. 99 et seq., 151 et seq. See Bot. 
Centralbl., 1892, Beih., p. 163. Cf. this Journal, ante, p. 79. 
t Bot. Ztg., 1. (1892) pp. 321-9, 337-42, 357-63, 380-4, 389-94, 405-9, 425-9, 
441-6, 457-62 (1 pi.). 
x Rev. Gen. de Bot. (Bonnier), iv. (1892) pp. 56-64, 103-13, 159-75, 220-31, 
259-72, 305-20 (3 pis.). Cf. this Journal, 1891, p. 634. 
