464 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
25 new species of parasitic Fungi from N. America, belonging to the 
genera Puccinia, Ustilago , Dimer osporium, Asteridium , Lsestadia, Sphse- 
rella , Lembosia , Vermicularia , Diplodici , Hendersonia, Pestalozzia , Scoleco- 
trichum, Cercospora , and Tetraploa. 
Mr. G. Massee * * * § attributes the “ spot ” of Orchidaceous plants to a 
hitherto undescribed species, Plasmodiophora Orchidis. 
Herr 0. K. Juelf identifies JEcidium Parnassise with a new species 
of Puccinia, P. uliginosa, parasitic on Carex vulgaris ; the aecidium on 
Thalictrum alpinum with another new species, P. borealis, on Agrostis 
borealis, and probably also on Anthoxanthum odoratum ; and the 
aecidium on Saussurea alpina with P. rupestris , parasitic on Carex 
rupestris. 
M. E. Prillieux J describes the injuries inflicted on the grain of 
sorghum by Ustilago Sorghi. It converts the ovary into a large pccket 
filled with a brown powder, the spores of the parasite, and containing 
in its centre a column, which is a portion of the axial tissue of the host 
excited to abnormal development by tho action of the parasite. 
Sig. A. Berlese § attributes a common disease of the root of the vine 
and of other fruit-trees to the attacks of Armillaria mellea and Posellinia 
necatrix, though Schizomycetes may assist in the destruction. 
Herr B. Frank || describes 11 kinds of parasitic fungus recently found 
infesting corn-crops in Germany, including two new species, Sphserella 
basicola and Septoria Avense. 
M. A. Prunet IT attributes a widely spread disease of the mulberry 
in the S. of France, the chytridiose of the mulberry, to the attacks of 
an undescribed species of Cladochytrium, C. Mori , differing from 
C. viticola only in the smaller size of its zoospores, cysts, and zoo- 
sporanges. 
Sexual Organs of the TJredinese.** — M. P. Nypels has investigated 
the mode of formation of the aecidia and spermogones in several Uredineae., 
especially in JEcidium Ilanunculacearum, A . Euphorbise, and A. Frangulse. 
He states that these organs are formed directly from the mycelial 
filaments, and is unable to confirm the observation of Massee of the 
existence of true sexual organs in the first named of these species. 
Microsporon.ff — M. P. Vuillemin proposes to make this genus of 
parasitic fungi the type of a new family, Microsporace.®, a group of 
Phycomycetes which has the same relation to the Coenobieae as the Sapro- 
legniaceae have to the Siplioneae, and Entomophthora to the Conjugatae. 
They resemble the Ccenobieee in their isogamy, in the mode of formation 
of the colonies, and in the presence of pseudopodes and of a pulsating 
vacuole, but differ in the absence of chlorophyll and of vibratile cilia. 
Microsporon vulgare is a facultative parasite on the human skin, differing 
* Ann. Bot., ix. (1895) p. 170. 
t Forhandl. K. Vetensk.-Akad. Stockholm, li. (1894) pp. 409-18. See Bot.. 
Centralbl., 1895, Beili., p. 81. 
% Bull. Soc. Bot. France, xlii. (1895) pp. 36-9 (1 fig.). 
§ Boll. Entomol. agrar. e Patol. veg., ii. (1895) pp. 6-8. See Bot. Centralbl.,. 
lxii. (1895) p. 122. (| Ber. Deutsch. Bot. Gesell., xiii. (1895) pp. 61-5. 
U Comptes Rendus, cxx. (1895) pp. 222-5. 
** Bull. Soc. Beige Microscopie, xxi. (1895) pp. 70-4. Cf. this Journal, 1888,. 
p. 782. ff Comptes Rendus, cxx. (1895) pp. 570-3. 
