No abstract

With Plates XVII and XVnX T TNTIL recently the systematic side of Mycology has y-J received most attention in Britain, a fact which probably accounts for the absence of any specific work on Coprophilous or dung-borne Fungi, many of which, as the species of Gymnoascus, Thelebolus, Microascus, &c, on account of being the most primitive representatives of their respective groups, are perhaps more interesting from a morphological than a purely systematic standpoint. A second reason may lie in the fact that many of the species are so very minute that their presence cannot be detected in the field; in fact it is only after considerable experience that they can be seen under the most favourable conditions of illumination, and as their duration is in many instances ephemeral the only chance of success is by keeping the material upon which they grow in the laboratory, where a daily examination can be made. Even from a systematic standpoint our investigations have shown that a careful study of the Fungi growing on the dung

The following substances proved fungicidal for the conidial stage of the hop mildew (Sphaerotheca Humuli):(1) Liquid paraffin at 2 per cent. emulsified with soft soap. The spray is harmless, or dangerous, to foliage according to the conditions (probably temperature) in the greenhouse.(2) Medicinal paraffin, emulsified with 0·75 per cent. castor-oil soap, is not quite fungicidal at 3 per cent.(3) “Summer solol”, a proprietary mineral-oil preparation containing 61·6 per cent. by weight high-boiling petroleum oils, is fungicidal at a concentration between 2·5 and 3 per cent. when 0·5 per cent. soft soap is added to confer satisfactory spreading properties. At this concentration no injury to the leaves was caused.(4) “Volck”, a proprietary petroleum-oil preparation containing 80·0 per cent. by weight mineral oils, is fungicidal at 2·5 per cent. With either 0·5 per cent. soft soap or 0·5 per cent. Agral I. Injury may be caused under certain conditions.

The object of the experiments described below was to establish, more clearly to what the fungicidal value of alkaline sulphide solutions is to be attributed.

T HE genus Streptopogon was founded in 1851 by Wilson (33) on the South American moss described by Taylor (31) in 1846 as Barbula erythrodonta. The genus was then defined as follows: ' Calyptra mitriformis, superne scabra; peristomium simplex, ciliiforme; cilia 33 aequidistantia, in ciliola duo postice fissa, laevia, in spiram unam dextrorsum contorta, basi in membranam angustam coadunata; cellulae operculi contortae.-In its mitriform, scabrous calyptra this curious moss resembles some species of Tayloria, but the peristome is that of Barbula, to which genus it is closely allied.' A few years later Mitten (12 and 12*) referred to the present genus the moss, from Chile, described in 1842 (28) by Schwaegrichen as Barbula mnioides, and also the moss from Kerguelen Island published by Hooker and Wilson (8) in 1844 as Schistidium marginatum. In 1865 Hampe (5) described Streptopogon Lindigii from Colombia (New Granada). Spruce, in 1867, in his catalogue of the mosses collected by him on the Amazon and in the Andes (29), mentioned by name only 5. rigidus, Mitt., S. cavifolius, Mitt., and 5. erythrodontus var. clavipes, Spruce; these three plants were distributed by him in the ' Musci Amazonici et Andini.' S. cavifolius and 5. clavipes (but not S. rigidus) were described by Mitten in his ' Musci