they are ciliated at the two extremities of the slight reniform body, the ends of which are pointed. After swarming for awhile, plastic or amoeboid movements ensue without the loss of the cilia. Finally a constriction appears, and the swarm spore divides into two uniciliated swarm spores, which, after a swarming period, round off and germinate. Pythium debaryanum, according to Hesse,1 has uniciliated zoospores, the cilium being attached a little below the smaller end, and Sadebeck says that the zoospores of his P. equiseti 2 are exactly like those of Cystosiphon pythioides Roze et Cornu (Pythium + cystosiphon Lind), which are biciliated, the form and position of the cilia being exactly like those of the Pythium which I have studied, though the swarm spores do not divide into uniciliated ones. Debary 5 5 considers P. equiseti Sadeb. to be identical with P. debaryanum, Hesse. According to Pringsheim, Pythium entophytum has uniciliated zoospores. The question arises as to whether or not these discrepancies may be harmonized by a critical study of the species of Pythium, and whether it is not true that all species possess at first biciliated zoospores which ultimately become uniciliated, or whether species vary, sometimes forming only biciliated zoo • spores, and in other cases these dividing into uniciliated ones. This character, together with others by which it differs from the Saprolegniaceae and Peronosporacea, would seem to justify the erection of a new family for the species of Pythium as has been done by Schroeter. In studying the germination of the spores of Ceratiomyra a form was used which may be the type of a new species to be known as C. plumosa. Spores freshly matured and sown in pure water before drying germinated within two to six hours. The germination differs from that of any other genus of the Myr omycetes. Through a small opening in the wall of the spore a vermiform thread of protoplasm issues which possesses tortuous motions and slight amoeboid movement. This shortens and becomes amoebiform, short pseudopodia continuing to develop. Shortly by simultaneous parti-division four rounded lobes appear attached at the middle by a mass of protoplasm. These then farther divide into an eight lobed body, minute pseudopodia developing the mean time over the surfaces of all the lobes. A single long cilium is now developed from each lobe, and quite violent lashings follow, accompanied by the continued development of pseudopodia. The individual lobes separate frequently in pairs, which remain for a short time in communication, but eventually separate. Sometimes three to six may remain joined for several hours, assuming various shapes, but always showing the individual lobes and the long cilia. These frequently simulate the form of a star fish. Ceratiomyra, by the development of individual cells in the sporophore before the formation of the spores, differs from the true Myxomycetes, and approaches the simple cellular fungi. In the germination of the spores it approaches the genus Pythium, and this suggests a relationship with the Phycomycetes. 1 Pythium debaryanum. Inaugural dissertation. Ein endophytisch er Schmarotzer, Halle, 1874. Unters. u. Pythium equiseti, Beitrage z. Biologie d Pflanzen, Cohn's I. Hef 3, p. 121, 1875. * Seur deux nouveaux types generiques pour les Familles des Saprolegniees et des Peronosporees. Ann d. Sci. Nat. Bot. 5th ser. t. XI., p. 78, 1869. 4 Syn. Saproleg. p. 50. Zur Kenntniss der Peronosporeen. Bot. Zeit. XXXIX, S. 528, 1881. 6 Jahrb. .f. Wis. Bot. I. p 283, 1859. LOPHOPAPPUS, A NEW GENUS OF MUTISIACEOUS COMPOSITAE; AND FLUCKIGERIA, A NEW GENUS IN GESNERIACEE. H. H. RUSBY, M.D., 222 W. 132d St., New York City. [ABSTRACT] GIVES general characters of groups to which the new genera belong, their positions in such groups, the occurrence of the plants on which the new genera are based, and the description of the latter. [This paper will be printed in Bulletin Torrey Botanical Club.] A REVISION OF THE GENUS SCOULERIA, ILLUSTRATED. BRITTON, Torrey Botanical Club, New York City. [ABSTRACT] By ELIZABETh G. THE type of the genus, Scouleria aquatica will be described. S. Nevii and S. Mülleri will be reduced to it. S. marginatu, a new species, will be described and illustrated by plate and specimens, with slides for the microscope. [This paper will be printed in the Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club.] SOME NOTES ON THE GENUS EUCALYPTA. BY ELIZABETH G. BRITTON, New York City. [ABSTRACT] A COMPARISON between European and American Specimens of Eucalypta ciliata, with some notes on E. longipes and E. Macounii. [This paper will be printed in the Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club.] A HYBRID AMONG THE MOSSES. By ELIZABETH G. BRITTON, New York [ABSTRACT] THE first American record of a hybrid among mosses, showing both the normal fruit of one of the parent plants and the hybrid capsules, growing together from the same stem. Parents Aphanorhegmu serrata ? × Physcomitrium turbinatum (?) distributed as Schistidium serratum in Drummond's Southern Mosses No. 20. [This paper will be printed in the Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club.] ON TORREYA AS A GENERIC NAME. By Dr. N. L. BRITTON, Columbia College, New York City. [ABSTRACT] A REVIEW of the six genera of plants with which the name has been associated, and the history of the type species. [This paper will be printed in the Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club.] NOTES ON THE PRIMARY FOLIAGE AND THE LEAF-SCARS IN PINUS RIGIDA. By Dr. N. L. BRITTON, Columbia College, New York City. [ABSTRACT] EXHIBITION of twigs and old bark of this pine, discussion of the foliar morphology, and suggestion of possible affinity with some extinct plants commonly grouped with Pteridophyta. NOTES UPON CHALARA PARADOXA. By Prof. BYRON D. HALSTED, New Brunswick, N. J. [ABSTRACT] THE fungus Chalara paradoxa (DeSeynes), Sacc., is recorded in Saccardo's Supplement to his Sylloge Fungorum. The writer studied it during the present year as growing upon pineapples. It furnishes the best material thus far met with for illustrating the internal abjunction of spores. When the time arrives for the production of these spores the tip of the hypha dissolves and the protoplasmic contents become divided serially into a row of hyaline cylindrical spores, which are pushed out of the tip of the spore-bearing hypha. While the process of spore-formation is at its height, the time for the deliverance of a spore may not exceed fifteen minutes. There is a second form of spore much larger than those above described, that forms in the ordinary way, and not separating readily, produces long necklace chains. There is a third form of spore midway between the two sorts mentioned in that it is produced by internal abjunction, is not hyaline, but brown and oval. This is likely a variation due to conditions under which the spores are produced. There are also spores produced within the substance of the host (pineapple flesh) that are still different. NOTES UPON A ROOT ROT OF BEETS. By Prof. BYRON D. HALSTED, New Brunswick, N. J. [ABSTRACT] DURING the present year a serious fungus decay was found upon the roots of field and garden beets. It seems to be an undescribed species of the genus Phyllosticta. The leading points in the present paper are: the rapid and profuse development of the Pycnidia of this fungus upon the cut surface of the affected parts of the beets; the complete separation of the Pycnidia by the intervention of a layer of thin cloth laid upon the freshly cut surface, and the confirmation of previous statements regarding the non-sexual origin of the Pycnidia. [This paper will be printed in the Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club.] SPECIES OF TAPHRINA PARASITIC ON POPULUS. By Mrs. F. W. PATTERSON 29 Hammond St., Cambridge, Mass. [ABSTRACT] AMERICAN mycologists formerly referred to Taphrina aurea specimens occurring on ovaries of Populus tremuloides and other hosts. It has been shown, however, that the name T. aurea belongs only to the form on leaves, which has not heretofore been known in America. The form on ovaries was then supposed to be identical with Johanson's T. rhizophora, but from this it now proves to be quite distinct and easily recognized by size of asci as belonging to T. Johansonii, Sadebeck. A form differing but slightly from T. aurea has now been found also in Iowa, parasitic on leaves of several species of Populus planted from Europe. EVIDENCE AS TO THE FORMER EXISTENCE OF LARGE TREES ON NANTUCKET ISLAND. BY BURT G. WILDER, Ithaca, N. Y. In his Report on the Geology of Nantucket (Bulletin of the United States Geological Survey, No. 53, 1889, Fig. 9), Prof. N. S. Shaler represents a section of a submerged swamp on the north shore of Nantucket with tree-stumps, one of which he says is 10 inches (25 cm.) in diameter. On p. 52 he writes: “I am inclined to believe that when this island was first settled the greater part of its surface, at least that portion of the area north of the southern plains, was covered with a forest growth which afforded some architectural timber." But he does not mention having personally observed any large tree remains in the interior of the island, and refers to the tradition that the former oaks and pines were 'sufficiently large to afford ship timber as well as material for edifices" as 66 'unsupported by any trustworthy record." Hence some positive evidence is desirable. Several years ago I was told by Mr. Harry Dunham that in cutting peat at Polpis he often encountered fragments of large trees. On the 15th of August, in company with Professors Harrison Allen, M.D., of the University of Pennsylvania, and W. K. Hatt of Purdue University, Indiana, I visited an old peat bog at Polpis, at Hughes' Neck, west of the main road, not far from what is reputed to be the oldest house on the island. The proprietor, Mr. Charles Swain, kindly led us to a stump standing undisturbed in a dense thicket on top of a bog where the soft peat is still a meter thick. The crown of this stump measures in diameter about 50 cm. (20 in.), and is thus twice the size of that mentioned by Professor Shaler. Photographs were taken of it and of a neighboring bog, more recently worked and covered with water, where are visible more than twenty uprooted stumps of various sizes.1 PRODUCTS OF METAMORPHOSIS OF MONSTROSITIES. BY ALBERT MANN, Ph. D., 483 First St., Brooklyn, N. Y. [This paper will be printed in the Botanical Gazette.] THE GROWTH OF FOREST TREES ILLUSTRATED FROM MARKED CORNERS, YEARS OLD. By Major JED. HOTCHKISS, Staunton, Va. 107 1 A week later the stump was extracted and found to be oak in a good state of preservation. Sections will be deposited in the U. S. National Museum, in the Museum of Comp. Zoology, in the Museum of Cornell University, and in the Nantucket Athenæum. THE COMMITTEE ON BIBLIOGRAPHY AND TYPOGRAPHY PRESENTED THE THE Committee on Bibliography and Typography appointed by the Madison Botanical Congress was directed to report to Section G of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. This section therefore is asked to receive the following report and take such action thereupon as seems wise :The committee report that progress has been made during the past year in carrying out the suggestions made to the Madison Botanical Congress.1 The first recommendation thereto made, viz., "that there should be published . . . . a catalogue of papers [relating to American botany] by authors," has been undertaken, and so far as it has gone has been successfully accomplished by the co-operation of a number of botanists with the editors of the Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club and the Cambridge Botanical Supply Co. This index, printed first in the Bulletin, is reprinted upon standard cards by the Cambridge Botanical Supply Co., so that any number of copies can be had and arranged by subjects or by journals as desired. Every effort will be made by those charged with the preparation of this index and its first publication to make it complete, and to have it conform exactly to the rules of citation prepared by this committee. The work of publication upon cards, however, is not adequately supported. The committee sincerely hope that this form of publication will not have to be given up, and they therefore urge that those interested testify their interest by sending their subscriptions to the Cambridge Botanical Supply Co., Cambridge, Mass. The committee also announce that the Botanical Gazette, in connection with the Cambridge Botanical Supply Co., is ready to undertake the publication of the supplementary list of journals referred to in section 1, b. of the committee's report 2 to the Congress which appointed it. The publication of these lists of journals upon cards will be begun as soon as subscribers sufficient to defray the expense of printing the cards can be secured. In the same way the Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club will undertake the publication of the list of authors referred to in the committee's report under i. c. If the number of subscribers to the index of papers above mentioned as in course of publication can be immediately increased, these author and journal cards will, for the present year, be sent free to subscribers. The committee again call attention to the index of new genera and species of plants now being issued on cards by Miss Josephine A. Clark, of Washington, D. C., and commend this to the support of botanists. Regarding this private publication, they beg to suggest (1) That there be added to these cards such marks as will serve to identify the series when distributed in other indexes; (2) That in the interest of completeness all new names relating to North American plants be included. A year's experience in the working of the rules for citations approved by the Madison Congress has not shown the necessity or desirability of any changes. To those rules, however, the committee desire to add the following amplification: 1 Proceedings Madison Botanical Congress, 45. June, 1894. 2 Loc. cit. |