350 
is an appearance only as far as the number of pods on a single spike 
is concerned ; but something more in another way; it increases the ~ 
number of spikes on a branchlet, all of them fruitful. One such 
specimen has a stem half an inch thick at the base, one fifth of an 
inch thick three inches above the base, and is ten inches high. Its 
head, or bushy top, is about five inches in height by seven in diame- 
ter, and is one mass of filled-out pods. ‘he leaves are generally 
linear, with here and there a perceptible notch, rarely as much as a 
quarter of an inch long, and generally not more than a tenth of an 
inch. Their width is about one twenty-fifth of an inch. Branches, 
small and scattering, spring from the base just at the ground. 
The other form has also a thickened stem and minute leaves ; but 
the fruit is generally stunted and abortive, if it has not already 
dropped off. The general appearance of the plant is thick and wiry, 
here and there a starved and flattened pod appearing along the stem 
among the abortive flower-remnants or the empty peduncles that 
have dropped their flowers. Each stem seems to keep a minute tuft 
of flowers at the end, to the last. Each spike before it elongates or 
opens, has the appearance of a minute plantain head, a little suggest- 
ive also of a young asparagus shoot. These spikes are small how- 
ever, being about one sixth of an inch long by one twentieth of an 
inch in diameter. 
They reminded me very strongly of some plants of the huckleberry 
tribe which I found on Long Island years ago, while Dr. T orrey was 
still alive, very depauperate in everything else, but the flowers and 
fruit preternaturally enlarged by the influence of some insect or 
fungus. I don’t remember to what species those bushes belonged ; 
but I brought some specimens to the Club, when Dr. Torrey took 
charge of them. They may be the Vaccinium which a recent com- 
munication to the BULLETIN speaks of as exhibiting the same phe- 
nomenon, or they may have been Gaylussacia. The flowers and 
fruit were as large as those of a moderately sized cherry. 
cok, Ta 
§$ 353. A brief contribution to the Mycological-Flora of the 
United States, 
By F. Baron THUEMEN. 
1. Puccinia lateripes Berk. et Rav. in Grevillea III. p. 52.—Ad 
folia viva Dizygandrae strepentis Meissn. St. Louis, Mo. Leg. Eg- 
gert. ; 
_ 2. Puecinia Gentianae Lk. in Linne, Spec. plant. c. Willd. VI. 2. 
p. 73.—Ad folia viva Gentianae puberulae Mchx. Plymouth, Iowa. 
Leg. E. Jones. a 
3. Aecidium Hamiltoniae Thuem. nov. spec.—Aec. caespitibus 
hypophyllis, rarissime amph/igenis, sparsis, irregularibus, in foliorum 
pagina superiore maculam ferrugineam formans ; pseudoperidiis 
_ densis, dilute flavidis, parvis, cupulaeformibus, ore crenulato, tenui ; 
sporis polyedris vel irregulariter ovoideis, dilute flavescentibus vel 
achrois, episporo reticulato punctulatoque, tenui, 30-40 mm. long,, 
16-22 mm. crass. 
In Hamiltoniae umbellatae Spr. (Comandrae umbellatae Nutt.) 
_ foliis viyis, St. Louis, Mo. Leg. Eggert. , | 
