26 Ward . — Recent Researches on the Parasitism of Fungi . 
(i) Barley, Oats, and Twitch in cases in the summer of 1895. Began May 15 
in 4 cases. 
Case. 
Sown. 
Soil. 
Seed. 
I 
May ia-june 1 
Sterilized 3 h. 
5 seeds Barley, attacked with Puccinia. 
2 
May 14 
jj 
5 seeds, free of Puccinia. 
3 
? 5 
5 seeds Oat, free of Fungus. 
4 
May 15 
j) 
5 rhizomes of Twitch, washed and ? free. 
On July 4 case 1 showed one plant with pustules . No others in this or 
other case. 
i. e. 20 seeds and plant with 19 failures and one success. 
(j) Barley in cases in the summer of 1897. 
Three cases used, sterile soil and 5 seeds each. 
Case. 
Sown. 
Results. 
I 
May 31 
1 pustuled in 26 days and others followed till all 5 were pustuled. 
2 
June 1 
No rust at all on any plant. 
3 
June 3 
4 seeds only germinated. Pustules visible on July 25, and 
next day discovered the presence of Aphis, and aphides 
rapidly increased till numerous. 
This insect was ‘ traced *■ via a crack and pustules increased daily. 
Results =14 plants, of which 9 rusted and 5 failed. 
(k) Spring Wheat and Barley in cases in the summer of 1898. Began May 26 
and used 3 cases, with 5 seeds each. On September 6 = all free of rust. 
i. e. 15 seedlings and 13 failures. 
(l) Experiments in 1896-9. But resulted in no further success. 
(5) It was noteworthy that although Eriksson had called attention to 
certain ‘ corpuscules speciaux ’ ( eigenthumlichen Korperchen) in the cells of the 
host, in the neighbourhood of young rust pustules, and had declared that these 
peculiar bodies were the incipient mycoplasma growing out into the inter- 
cellular spaces as mycelium, we were anxiously awaiting figures of these 
bodies for some time. Eriksson’s first enunciation of the mycoplasm- 
hypothesis was in 1897 (63 and 64) be it remembered ; but no figures appeared 
until 1901-2 (65), when the author gave a plate of outline drawings of these 
peculiar bodies. 
Those of us most familiar with the haustoria of the Uredineae were at 
once reminded of these bodies. I had made a very special study of these 
haustoria in the case of Hemileia , the Fungus of the Ceylon coffee-disease, 
in t 880-2 (192), and was convinced of the identity of the bodies in Puccinia 
dispersa ; but in order that there should be no jumping to conclusion 
I worked out the histology of that Fungus from spore to spore, and in 1903 
placed the matter beyond cavil (195). 
