AND LIFE-HISTORY OF ENTYLOMA RANUNCULI. 
183 
light on the vexed question which has arisen around the unfortunate word “ pre¬ 
disposition.” 
The plants in the ditch were certainly more apt to be diseased than others in the 
open, because the disease, once established, could spread like an epidemic under the 
conditions existing. I have other facts in other connections which bear out this, and 
I hope some time to be able to devote special and continuous attention to this 
question. 
I do not propose to enlarge upon the subject of the resting-spores. After some 
months in the dormant condition they put forth promycelial tubes, from which 
sporidia are developed which seem to behave like the conidia described ; the type of 
germination is like that of Tilletia. 
Description of the Figures. 
PLATE 10. 
Fig. 1. A leaf of Ranunculus Ficaria with the white disease-spots containing the 
parasite. Two of the white spots are turning ashen grey in the centre, and 
a still older spot at the margin had turned brown, and the rotted tissues 
then fell away. The chalky appearance of the younger spots is due to the 
conidia. There are spots on both sides of the leaf. 
Fig. 2. A stoma with the hyphae of the Entyloma protruding—from a leaf laid 
12 hours in water. To the right is one of the hyphae about to form a 
conidium at the apex. The hyphae are here very long, since they grow into 
the water. (Zeiss, E.) 
Fig. 3. Similar pencil of hyphae protruding from a stoma, and bearing conidia. The 
preparation is taken fresh from a leaf growing in not very dam]) air, hence 
the shorter hyphae and conidia. (Zetss, E.) 
Fig. 4. Similar preparation—one of the conidiophores slightly branched. (Zeiss, E.) 
Fig. 5. Similar preparation from leaf in damp ditch, and taken in wet weather, 
showing the elongated form of the hyphae and conidia. (Zeiss, J.) 
Fig. 6. Stoma with protruding conidiophores from the margin of a young spore. The 
fungus is still young. (Zeiss, E.) 
Fig. 7. A cell from the spongy mesophyll of Ranunculus Ficaria, with copiously 
branched hyphae of Entyloma ranunculi closely applied to its walls. 
(Zeiss, E.) 
Fig. 8. Cells surrounding an intercellular space, with the mycelium of the Entyloma 
on and between the cells. (Zeiss, D.) 
