74 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
The spores of F. moschatum are crescentiform or sickle-shaped. 
Their average length is 20 /x, and their breadth 1-3 /x. Each spore 
usually shows three, or even four, transverse septa. When grown on 
potato, the spores are seen to contain raany vacuoles or areas of attenu- 
ated protoplasm which are faintly stained by dyes. Besides the vacuoles 
there are also highly refracting corpuscles, possibly droplets of fat. 
Although a spore-membrane is not demonstrable, the constancy of the 
form of the spores is striking evidence of its existence. The spores are 
easily stained with an aqueous solution of any anilin dye, but unlike 
the spores of Bacteria and those of Penicilliiim glaucum, which only 
stain with anilin water i^lus pigment, retaining the stain after de- 
colouring action of hydrochloric acid, Fusisporimn loses its stain after 
this treatment. 
The author observed the germination of the spores in hanging drops 
of gelatin. 
The macroscopical appearance of a colony varied with the nutritive 
medium, and development was possible only within certain limits of 
temperature, the most favourable being about 15° C. Fusisporium is 
not only essentially aerobic, but water is indispensable for its develop- 
ment. 
It forms a red pigment diffused in both the mycelium and the spores, 
but is most intense in the latter. It is developed more copiously in 
potato-cultivations than in bouillon. The author found that it was 
insoluble in alcohol and ether, but, according to De Bary, this fungus 
produces two pigments— one soluble in water, and the other insoluble 
in water and soluble in alcohol and ether. 
Fusisporium exhales an odour which resembles, according to both the 
author and Kitasato, that of musk. It is perceptible in cultivations on 
any medium, but is stronger from some than from others, notably potato. 
Inoculation experiments made with cold-blooded animals (frog) 
showed that it would develope as an epiphyte on the skin, but doing 
no material harm, while when injected beneath the skin the animal died 
in the course of a few weeks, and Fusisporium was found post-mortem 
in the viscera. 
Botrytis cinerea.* — Herr S. Kissling has undertaken an exhaustive 
investigation of the variations in this parasitic form of Peziza Fuclteliama 
when growing on various host-plants. The following is a summary of 
the more important results : — 
The germ-filaments from the conids penetrate very readily the 
delicate parts of the flower, and especially the anthers and stigmas. 
The mycele which grows rapidly on these parts is infective. It spreads 
in the flower-stalk and axis, and hence attacks organs where direct 
infection from the conids is impossible. Plants containing much water, 
and with a thin epiderm, also ofier very little resistance to its attacks. 
The injury inflicted by the hyphie is due to the excretion of an enzyma. 
The conids of later generations germinate much more rapidly than those 
of earlier ones. This parasite causes extensive injury to Gentiana lutea 
growing wild, to greenhouse plants, and to chestnuts stored up in 
cellars. The vegetative and the propagative hyphse of Botrytis differ 
Hedwigia, xxviii. (1889) pp. 227-56. 
