ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 
65 
Herr A. Nilsson * * * § ** finds the following fungi belonging to the Uredinese 
parasitic on the pine in Sweden : — Chrysomyxa Ledi, Ch. Abietis, JEcidium 
corruscans, 2E. conorum Picese, and JE. strobilinum. The pine-forests are 
nowhere attacked by Chrysomyxa Ledi except in the neighbourhood of 
Ledum palustre. 
Under the name JEcidium Opuntise sp. n., Herr P. Magnus f describes 
a parasitic fungus which attacks species of Opuntia in South America. 
Relationship between the Pezizese and the Helvelleae-i — Herr G. 
Dittrich points tfut the forms which display intermediate points of struc- 
ture between these two groups of fungi. The stipitate Pezizeae (e. g. 
Peziza macropus ) closely resemble certain simply organised species of 
Helvetia in their early stages. The apotheces both of many Pezizese 
and of the Helvelleae may be derived from structures resembling the 
peritlieces of the Pyrenomycetes. Attention is also called to the angio- 
carpous origin of the hymenium in certain ITelvellineae. 
Pyxine.§ — In a description of the Lichens of the first Regnell expe- 
dition, Dr. G. 0. A. N. Malme gives a monograph of this genus, with a 
general account of its structure. He finds no evidence of the syntrophy 
ascribed to this genus by Minx. Seven species are described, two of 
them new\ 
Biology of Yeasts. || — M. J. A. Cordier contests the statement that 
insects play an important part in the dissemination of Saccharomyces on 
ripe fruits, at all events in Champagne, where the ripening of the grape 
does not take place till the 12th or 18th of October, when hardly any 
insects are on the wing. The chief agent there is undoubtedly the wind. 
At the time of the vintage the thallus of Dematium pullulans is in a, 
state of great fragmentation, while true Saccharomyces is present in but 
small quantities. It is the abundance of Dematium pullulans in the 
flower of the vine that gives it its characteristic vanilla-like odour. 
Saccharomyces ruber.^f — Sig. 0. Casagrandi describes under the 
name of Saccharomyces ruber, a blastomycete which he isolated from dia- 
betic urine. When injected into the subcutaneous connective tissue, an 
inflammatory and suppurating swelling is produced. These tumours 
are quite like those produced by other blastomycetes and by oidial forms 
described by Sanfelice. When mixed with milk it causes diarrhoea. In 
itself it is harmless, but it has the power of exciting changes in milk 
which is then capable of producing gastro-enteric disturbances in animals 
(rabbits, dogs) and in children. 
Conversion of Mould Fungi into Alcohol Yeasts.* 5 " — Herr A. 
Jorgensen, in a preliminary communication on the genetic connection of 
alcohol yeasts and mould fungi, states that the experimental proof of 
the conversion of a Dematium into an alcohol yeast fungus which occurs 
* Tidsk. f. Skogohnshallning, 1898, pp. 89-105. See Bot. Gentralbl., lxxvi. 
(1898) p. 282. f Ber. Deutsch. Bot. Gesell., xvi. (1898) pp. 151-8 (1 pi.). 
t J B. Schles. Gesell. vaterl. Cultur, xv. (1898) Zool.-bot. Sect., pp. 16-9. 
§ Bill. k. Svensk. Vetensk.-Akad. Handl., xxiii. (1898) Afd. 3, 40 pp. (German). 
|| Comptes Rendus, cxxvii. (1898) pp. 628-30. Cf. this Journal, 1898, p. 112. 
1 Ann. d’lgiene sperim., viii. See Oentralbl. Bakt. u. Par., l te Abt., xxiv. (1898) 
p. 757. 
** Oentralbl. f. Bakt. u. Par., 2 te Abt., iv. (1898) p. 860. Cf. this Journal. 1896, 
p. 341. 
1899 
F 
