420 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
the plates are characterise:! by symmetrical excrescences or markings. 
The following are the diagnoses of the two genera 
Coccosphsera. Spherical ; plates consisting each of an outer and 
an inner expanded limb joined by a central collar, numerous, circular 
or oval, and overlapping, perforate, striate radially on the outer face ; 
with a single central green chromatophore ; reproduction by fission. 
Bhabdosphsera. Globular to oval ; plates round or angular, per- 
forate, free from, or apposed to each other, bearing projections from the 
centre of the outer surface. 
The new species described are Coccosphsera leptopora, Bhabdosphsera 
tubifer , and B. claviger. 
Fungi. 
Formation of Conids in Fungi.* * * § — Herr C. Werner distinguishes, 
in Nectria cinnabarina , three different kinds of conid : — aquatic conids, 
which may be abstricted in an irregular way from all the hyplne ; aerial 
conids, formed on simple or branched erect conidiophores ; and those 
formed on branched crowded hypliae, often in a strongly developed 
stroma ; their form is always narrowly elliptic. The first kind are 
formed in fluid media ; the second on nutrient agar or gelatin ; the 
third kind are produced when the substratum is drier than the sur- 
rounding air. The formation of conids decreases with the increase in 
concentration of the medium. In Volutella ciliata, abundance of nutri- 
ment and a low transpiration lead to the formation of tufts of conidio- 
phores ; if the nutriment is deficient and transpiration low, simple 
conidiophores are produced. 
Influence of Light on the Development of Fungi.f — From a series 
of experiments made chiefly on Pilobolus microsporus and Coprinus 
stercorarius, Herr F. Graewitz finds that the ripening of the sporanges, 
which normally takes place only at night, is not necessarily dependent 
on an entire absence of light. On the other hand, the sporanges of 
Pilobolus and the pileus of Coprinus are not differentiated in perpetual 
darkness. The rapidity of the development of the receptacle increases 
with the intensity of the light. 
Parasitic Fungi. — Prof. G. Lagerheim J records the occurrence of 
two new species of parasitic fungus: — Empnsa phalangicida sp. n. on a 
Phalangid, the only species yet discovered parasitic on other animals 
than insects ; and Iola Lasioboli sp. n., parasitic on Lasiobolus equinus, 
growing on cow-dung, the first known example of a basidiomycete 
parasitic on a discomycete ; also of Pliysoderma ( Urophlyctis ) leproides, 
parasitic on the lucerne in Ecuador. 
Herr 0. Juel§ enumerates the various aecidia found on different 
species of Umbelliferte, and connects them with their teleutospore forms. 
These are found also on Umbelliferae (usually on a different species from 
* ‘ Die Beding. d. Conidien-bild. b. einigen Pilzen,’ Frankfurt-a-M., 1898, 48 pp. 
and 55 figs. See Bot. Ztg., lvii. (1899) 2 te Abtk., p. 99. 
t ‘ Ueb. d. Einfluss d. Lichtes a. d. Entwick. einiger Pilze,’ Leipzig, 1S98, 74 pp. 
See Bot. Ztg., lvii. (1899) 2 te Abth., p. 97. 
X Bih. k. Svensk. Vetens.-Akad. Handl , xxiv. Ad. 3, No. 4, 1898, 22 pp. and 
3 pis. See Hedwigia, xxxviii. (1899) Beih., p. 94. 
§ Ofv. k. Vetensk. Akad. Forh., lvi. (1899) pp. 5-20 (4 figs.) (German). 
