324 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
Fungi. 
Method of Cleavage in the Sporangia of Certain Fungi. — Carl 
A. Schwarze ( Mycoiogia , 1922, 14, 143-72, 2 pis., 2 figs.). The writer 
gives a general sketch of spore formation, etc., in sporangia, describes 
his methods of work, and then proceeds to the more particular account 
of different types. In Olpidiopsis he gives the different stages, the 
formation of vacuoles, cleavage by furrows cutting outward from the 
central vacuole, formation and swelling of spore initials with the 
appearance of hyaline spaces between, finally contraction and rounding 
up of the spores. Equally careful examination is made of Saprolegnia 
and Achlya , Sporodinia grandis, Mucor racemosus , Gircinella minor , 
Mucor Mucedo , Rhizopus nigricans and Pilobolus crystallinus. The 
writer lays stress on the various contraction and expansion phases 
accompanying the formation of spores, and compares the development 
of the spores with those of some algae. A. Lorrain Smith. 
Phytophthora infestans on Egg-plant in the United States. — 
R. J. Haskell ( Phytopathology , 1921, 11, 504-5). During the 
summer of 1915 the writer noticed about six egg-plants in a field 
closely surrounded by potato plants infected with Phytophthora infestans. 
He observed that the disease had passed to the egg-plants. He does 
not, however, consider that there need be much fear of the disease, as 
the egg-plant belongs essentially to warm climates unfavourable to 
potato culture. A. L. S. 
Chytridiaceous Fungus parasitic on a Marine Alga.-— George 
W. Martin ( Bot . Gaz., 1922, 73, 236-8, 10 figs.). Martin found this 
fungus on a sterile plant of Callithamnion from Barnegat Bay, New 
Jersey. The living fungus could not be studied, but careful descrip- 
tions and figures are given as far as they were possible. Several 
species of ’Rkizophidium are known as parasites of algse in brackish 
water. The present species corresponds most nearly with R. poly- 
siphonise. A. L. S. 
Cytological Fungus Study. II. Research on Some Hemiascese. 
— H. 0. Juel ( Nova Acta Reg. Soc. Sci. Upsal., 1921, Ser. IV., 5. 
No. 5, 41 pp., 4 ph, 4 figs.). The author has examined a number of 
genera and species, and his results are given in considerable detail. 
Endomyces decipiens has mitotic nuclear division in the vegetative cells. 
The ascus has a large nucleus which passes through a stage similar to 
the spirem ; there are at least two mitoses, probably representing a 
reduction division, probably also a third division, and Juel suggests a 
fusion in the ascus of these eight nuclei to form four spores. Dipodascus 
and Taphridium are described and several species of Taphrina. In 
the latter genus the vegetative cells contain typical nuclei which lie in 
pairs, and doubtless undergo conjugate division. Taphrina bullata has 
several pairs in each cell — the other species only one pair. In the 
ascus, the plasma collects at the upper end, and three nuclear divisions 
take place. Juel considers that the group of Hemiasceae is of a primi- 
