ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 
445 
conditions cause a great variation in the external form of the species of 
Stichococcus ; they may assume either a coccoid or a filamentous con- 
dition, and have been described as species of TJlothrix , Hormidium , and 
Hormiscia. The genus may be divided into two “ collective species,” 
S. bacillaris and S. flaccidus, each including a number of sub-species. 
Fungi. 
Glycogen in Fungi.* — According to M. G. Clautriau, glycogen is in 
fungi the most important equivalent of the starch of ordinary plants. 
Like animal glycogen, that obtained from fungi is dextrogyrous ; 
diastatic ferments convert it into a sugar, probably maltose, which 
reduces Fehling’s solution ; dilute acids convert it, when heated, into 
glucose. The iodide has usually a red-brown colour. The glycogen of 
fungi contains a rather large amount of ash, but no nitrogen. A process 
of obtaining glycogen from fungi (Basidiomycetes and Saccharomycetes) 
is described in detail. The proportion in the dried powder varies 
between 14 and 31 per cent. 
Value of Alkalies and Iron-Compounds for Fungi. t — From a series 
of experiments on different fungi ( Penicillium , Aspergillus , &c.), Herr C. 
Wekmer derives the conclusion that potassium salts are not necessary to 
their life. In opposition to the view of Molisch, j he makes the same 
statement with regard to salts of iron. 
Chrysophlyctis, a new Genus of Chytridiaceae.§ — Under the name 
Chrysophlydis endobiotica g. et sp. n., Dr. K. Schilbersky describes a 
parasitic fungus which attacks the potato, causing, eventually, holes as 
if the tissue had been eaten out. It is endobiotic and has no mycele, 
consisting, when mature, simply of a spherical golden-brown zoosporange, 
usually found in the hypoperidermal layers of the tuber ; the zoospores 
are minute and spherical, each with a single flagellum. Besting 
sporanges were also observed. 
Sporangia! Rudiments in the Saprolegniacese.|| — The observation 
previously made by Herr A. Maurizio that, iu Saprolegnia rhsetica , the 
conids have the power of developing either into non-sexual sporanges or 
into oogones, is now extended by him to many other species of the 
genus, including several new ones — S. esocina, heterandra , intermedia , 
and bodamica, mostly parasitic on living fish. He therefore proposes 
for these conids the term “sporangial rudiments” (, Sporangium-anlage ), 
and for the sporanges and oogones which result from them, “ conidial 
sporanges ” and “ conidial oogones.” In one section of the genus the 
antherids have also a similar origin. The author gives reasons for 
believing that the “ sporangial rudiment ” is not a degraded form of the 
perfect sporange, but is the original structure from which the latter has 
sprung. 
* ‘ Etude cliimique d. glycogene chez les Champignons et les levures,’ Bruxelles, 
1895. See Morot’s Journ. de Bot., x. (1896), Bull. Bibl., p. i. 
f Beitr. z. Kenntniss einheimischer Pilze, 1895. See Bot. Ztg., liv. (1896) 
2‘® Abt., pp. 11, 12. Cf. this Journal, ante, p. 215. 
X Cf. this Journal, 1895, p. 545. 
§ Ber. Deutsch. Bot. Gesell., xiv. (1896) pp. 36-7. 
|| Jahrb. f. wiss. Bot. (Pfeifer u. Strasburger), xxix. (1896) pp. 75-131 (2 pis.). 
Cf. this Journal, 1895, p. 79. 
