366 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
Fungus-disease of the Plane.* * * § — M. Leclerc du Sablon describes a 
disease of the plane-tree caused by the attacks of a parasitic fungus 
Gloeosporium Platani, with which he unites G. nervisequum and G. valsoi- 
deum. The formation of spores (conids) is described, but no produc- 
tion of ascospores was observed. A receptacle for the conids is formed 
by decay of the tissue of the leaf or branch, and in this receptacle the 
conids lie imbedded in a gelatinous substance. Sclerotes are also 
formed within the receptacle. 
Black-rot of the Batatas. t — Prof. B. D. Halsted and Mr. D. G. 
Fairchild find this disease of the sweet potato, also known as “ black- 
leg,” to be due to a parasitic fungus which they name Ceratocystis 
jimbriata. Three kinds of spores were observed : — olive-brown mega- 
conids in the intercellular spaces and in the cells ; colourless micro- 
conids on the surface ; and pvcnospores contained in flask-shaped 
pycnids with a long fringed neck, from which they escaped attached to 
one another in a lump. Globular sclerotes were also seen. 
Cell-nucleus in Yeast.f — Dr. F. Krasser contests the view of Moeller 
and others that there is any true nucleus in the cells of Saccharomyces 
cerevisise. By artificial digestion in pepsin he determined that the 
structures so called do not consist of nuclein. The presence of nuclein 
in the cells of yeast can, however, be shown by both macrochemical and 
microchemical tests, but it appears to be distributed, in very finely 
divided form, throughout the body of the cell. The author considers 
the whole body of the cell to be archiplasm, rather than that the 
granules of nuclein are the result of fragmentation of a nucleus. 
Saccharomyces kephyr.§ — M. R. Ferry confirms the statement of 
Beyerinck that the kephyr of the Caucasus is the symbiotic combina- 
tion of the zoogloea of a bacterium, Bacillus caucasicus , with a saccharo- 
mycetous fungus, Saccharomyces kephyr. 
Herr J. H. Schuurmans || has made a careful examination of the 
properties of this ferment, and, among other things, has come to the 
conclusion that it does not invert milk-sugar. 
Dipodascus, a new Sexual Genus of Hemiasci.^f — Under the name 
Dipodascus albidus g. et sp. n., Prof. G. von Lagerheim describes a 
fungus found in a mucilaginous slime on a Bromeliaceous tree in 
Ecuador. The following is the diagnosis of the genus: — Mycele 
branched, septated, not gelatinous, flocculent; asci without envelope, 
ascospores numerous, resulting from the conjugation of two cells, and 
not separated from them by a septum ; asci opening at the apex to allow 
the escape of the spores, which collect into a ball at its mouth ; spores 
unicellular ; non-sexual propagation by oidia. The variable size and 
number of the spores places Dipodascus among the Hemiasci, with the 
greatest affinity with Ascoidea. The author regards it as a transitional 
* Rev. Gen. de Bot. (Bonnier), iv. (1892) pp. 473-80 (1 pi.). 
f Journ. of Mycol., vii. (1892) pp. 1-11 (3 pis.). See Bot. Centralbl., 1893, 
Beih., p. 59. 
% Oesterr. Bot. Zeitschr., xliii. (1893) pp. 14-22. Cf. this Journal, ante, p. 220. 
§ Rev. Mycol., xiv. (1892) pp. 161-2 (1 pi.). Cf. this Journal, 1892, p. 82. 
1| ‘ Saccharomyces Kefyr,’ Utrecht, 1891. See Bot. Centralbl., li. (1892) p. 12. 
^ Jahrb. f. Wiss. Bot. (Pringsheim), xxiv. (1893) pp. 549-65 (2 pis.). 
