ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 
191 
plasm. The author enters into great detail respecting the injuries 
produced by these parasitic fungi, and the best preventives and 
remedies. 
The Symbiotic Mycoplasm Theory.* * * § — Mr. H. L. Bolley contests the 
theory of Eriksson that the Uredine® carry on a kind of symbiotic ex- 
istence in the tissues of the host-plant. Ho believes them to be true 
parasites. His observations also lead to the conclusion that the parasite 
enters the host-plant, not through the stomates only, but also directly 
through the cuticle. He was quite unable to find, in the cells of the 
host-plant, the “mycoplasm” particles which Eriksson regards as the 
latent condition of the parasite. 
Fungus in the Ovary of Darnel. — M. P. Guerin f has detected, in 
the seeds of Lolium temulentum , the constant presence of a Fungus- 
mycele, to which he attributes the production of the poisonous principle 
(temulin) which they contain. It is found in the external layers be- 
longing to the nucollus beneath the integument. The hypli® are abun- 
dantly septated ; but there is not sufficient evidence to determine the 
systematic position of the fungus. It was found also in other species 
which have a poisonous reputation, L. arvense and linicola , but not 
in L. italicum. Its mode of life is probably symbiotic rather than 
parasitic. 
Herr T. F. Hanausek J describes a similar fungus mycele, appa- 
rently always sterile, in the ripe seeds of Lolium temulentum , but not in 
those of L. perenne. It appears to have no injurious effect on the de- 
velopment or fertility of the seed. 
In L. temulentum , but not in any other species of Lolium , a similar 
phenomenon is described by Dr. A. Nestler,§ who also suggests this 
as the cause of the poisonous properties of darnel* 
Nuclear Division in the Basids of the Basidiomycetes.||— From an 
examination of the mode of division of the nucleus in the basids of a 
large number of Basidiomycetes, Herr H. O. Juel has come to the con- 
clusion that all basids are identical structures from a morphological 
point of view, and have a common origin. This view is based on the 
fact that their “ internal morphology ” — i.e. the processes of nuclear and 
cell-division — present a much greater uniformity in the various types 
than their external morphology. 
The nucleus of young basids always arises from the coalescence of 
two original nuclei ; but the author does not regard this as a process of 
sexual union. After this coalescence, the nucleus always breaks up, by 
two successive karyokineses, into four daughter-nuclei, which produce 
the four basidiospores. In Dcicryomyces, where only two spores are 
formed, two nuclei remain behind in the steriginas. 
According to the position of the spindle in the process of nuclear 
division, whether longitudinal or transverse, the author divides the 
* Centralbl. Bakt. u. Par., 2 fa Abth., iv. (1898) pp. 855-9, 887-96, 913-9 (6 figs.). 
Cf. this Journal, 1897, p. 232. 
t Journ. de Bot. (Morot), xii. (1898) pp. 230-8, 384-5 (5 figs.). 
1 Ber. Deutsch. Bot. Ges., xvi. (1898) pp. 203-7 (4 figs.). 
§ Tom. cit., pp. 207-14 (1 pi.). 
|| Jahrb. f. wiss. Bot., xxxii. (1898) pp. 361-88 (1 pi.). 
