384 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
considers that wine-yeasts pursue a different course, on the assumption 
that these cells are unable to retain their vitality in the earth from 
season to season. 
Life-history of Puccinia Geranii sylvatici.* * * § — Dr. A. Barclay has 
followed out the life-history of the Himalayan variety of this fungus, 
parasitic on Geranium Xepalense. Its cycle of development is complete 
without the formation of any other kind of spore than the teleutospores, 
of which it produces two distinct crops in the spring and summer. It 
is further interesting in partaking of the characters both of a Leptopuccinia 
and of a JPicropuccinia, and thus breaking down the distinction between 
these two divisions of the genus. 
Frankia subtilis.f — Herr H. Moeller supports Brunchorst’s view 
that the swellings on the roots of the alder and of the Elaeagnaceae are 
true galls, and that they are produced not by a Plasmodiophora, but by 
a true fungus, FranTda subtilis. This has now been determined by 
Moeller to be a unicellular or pluricellular fungus belonging to the 
Hyphomycetes, producing a mycele of which each branch ends in a 
sporange ; the protoplasm of this sporange divides into a large number 
of spores, each of which puts out a germinating filament, which gives 
birth to a new mycele. The galls are induced by the parasitism of this 
fungus. 
Podaxon.i — M. N. Patouillard gives a monograph of the eleven 
species of this exotic genus of F ungi, two of them new. They resemble 
the stalked Lycoperdons, and are composed of a tissue consisting of 
slender septated hyphrn, variously branched and anastomosing, and con- 
taining lacunae. The basids are usually collected into large tufts on the 
trama, and the spores are, in most of the species, sessile. 
Spores on the Surface of the Pileus of Polyporeae.§ — M. N. 
Patouillard records the occurrence of this phenomenon in Pol yporusf ulcus 
and nigricans. The spores are borne at the extremity of basids, which 
differ only in their position from those of the tubes. He regards the 
upper surface of the pileus as altogether homologous with the inner 
surface of the tubes, and as being equally entitled to the designation of 
hymenium. 
Mycetozoa. 
Orcadella, a new Genus of Myxomycetes.' — Under the name 
Orcadella operculata, Mr. H. Wingate describes a new species and genus 
of Myxomycetes, found on living stems of Quercus rubra in the United 
States. He founds on it a new family of Orcadellace^. characterized 
by having sporanges without columel or capitulum, the upper part of 
the thick septum of the sporange being replaced by a delicate membrane 
with finely marked margin. 
* Ann. of Bot., v. (1890) pp. 27-36 (1 pi.). 
t Ber. Deutsch. Bot. Gesell., viii. (1890) pp. 215-24 (1 fig.). Cf. this Journal, 
1887, p. 611. 
♦ Bull. Soc. MjooL France, vi. (1890) pp. 159-67 (1 pi.'. SeeMorot’s Jonrn. de 
Bot , v. (1891) Bull. Bib!., p. xviii. 
§ Soc. MycoL de France, v. (1889). See Bot. CentralbL, xliv. (1890) p. 250. 
J] Rev. Mycol., xii. (1890) pp. 74-5. 
