Germination and infectivity were examined for buoyant and nonbuoyant sclerotia of Corticium rolfsii isolated from water chestnut. In both types of sclerotia, germination occurred eruptively through a rind hole made with a sharp needle and from the whole surface of sclerotia treated with 0.5% NaCIO for 10 min. When the sclerotia were air-dried, the buoyant tended to germinate more rapidly and eruptively than the nonbuoyant. Germination and infection on snap bean hypocotyls were also more rapid for the buoyant than the nonbuoyant. Irrespective of the germination type, morphological changes of the rind and cortex cells were similar in the course of germination, and hyphae were considered to be originated from the cortex and/or outer medulla cells of sclerotia. Compared with untreated sclerotia, adhesion of the skin to the outermost rind cells became looser in the dried sclerotia and more significantly in the NaCIO-treated sclerotia.

　A poisonous Tricholoma species, collected in a broad-leaved forest in Sado island, Niigata prefecture, was identified as Tricholoma pardinum, new to Japan. The poisoning by it was not fatal but gastrointestinal in its effects.

　Seedling damping-off of Jew's mallow (Corchorus oltorius) occurred in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan in May, 1994. Twelve isolates of fungi were obtained from the deseased tissues. In inoculation tests at 15 and 25°C, only one isolate was pathogenic on Jew's mallow and radish seedlings at 15°C, but not at 25°C. The isolate from diseased plants was identified as Rhizoctonia solani, based on the morphological and cultural characteristics. The isolate anastomosed with standard isolate of AG-2-1 only and restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLP) patterns of internal transcribed spacers (ITS) region of rDNA were the same as those of the standard isolate of AG-2-1.