82 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
conidiiferous resembling that of the ascogenous filaments ; the conidii- 
ferous “ podetia ” are also an element of the fructification, and not of 
the thallus. From a phylogenetic point of view the author regards the 
homosporous as an earlier, the heterosporous forms as a later develop- 
ment. 
In the earlier stages the fungal hyphte receive their nutriment 
entirely from the algal gonids ; as the thallus gradually dies off from 
below, the gonids are replaced, in their nutritive function, by soredes, 
formed out of special assemblages of hyphse, and out of thallus- 
scales borne on the “ podetia ” ; and these are essential to the later 
nutrition of the fertile shoot, the growth of which may extend over a 
century. 
Laboulbeniacese.* — Mr. R. Thaxter gives a list of the American 
species belonging to this order of Fungi, in which a large number of new 
species are described, and the following new genera : — 
Cantharomyces. Receptacle simple, or compound above the supra- 
basal cell, from which one or more divisions may arise, each bearing a 
solitary perithece ; pseudo-paraphyses one or more, arising from the 
supra-basal cell ; perithece median, tapering towards its symmetrical 
apex. 
Peyritscliiella. Receptacle composed of two superposed basal cells, 
above which it is multicellular, one cell on the inner side forming a 
short sharp projection. Perithece one, sometimes two, when single 
terminal, nearly median, subconical, the spreading apex symmetrically 
four-lobed ; pseudo-paraphyses arising from several different points on 
either side of the receptacle. 
Zodiomyces. Main body of the fungus tapering to a narrow base of 
attachment, parenchymatously multicellular, the distal end cup-shaped, 
with a more or less well-marked rim, within which arise, from the 
central parenchyme, stalked peritheces and simple septate sterile fila- 
ments. Peritheces asymmetrical, the apex bent to one side, appen- 
daged, borne on simple septate pedicels having a rounded prominence 
just below the perithece. Spores hyaline, fusiform, asymmetrically 
once-septate, involved in mucus. 
Hesperomyces. Perithece asymmetrical, thrice transversely con- 
stricted, with an abruptly conical appendiculate apex, borne on two cells, 
one of which is prolonged downwards to form a pedicellate connection 
with the receptacle. Receptacle of three cells, one basal and two distal ; 
from the outer of which arises the antheridial appendage ; from the 
inner (as a bud) the stalked perithece. Antheridial appendage simple, 
cylindrical, septate, with a single lateral row of tooth-like projections. 
Saccharomyces kefyr.t — Mr. C. L. Mix describes a yeast found in the 
United States and Canada, apparently identical with the milk-fermenting 
kephir of the Caucasus and other parts of Eastern Europe. It occurs in 
the form of small granules of a dirty brown colour, which retain their 
vitality for a long period, and consist of a small proportion of yeast- 
cells imbedded in zoogloea masses of rod-shaped bacteria. The yeast- 
* Proc. Amer. Acarl. Arts and Sci., xxv. (1890) pp. 5-14, 261-70. 
f Op. cit., xxvi. (1891) pp. 102-14. Cf. this Journal, 1889, p. 99. 
