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likely to contain the fungus ; Dr. Beal, that no difference between 
plants with these fungi and those without was observable above 
ground. 
5. ‘Some Rare and Interesting Fungi from Florida,” by 
W. T. Swingle. 
In this note the author called attention to, and showed speci- 
mens of, four little-known fungi from Florida. The first an Asco- 
mycete, new to America, and also on a new host, resembles, in a 
slight degree, Claviceps, but differs from this fungus in many re- 
spects. The parasite attacks the inflorescence of Cenchrus echin- 
atus while it is young, and transforms it into a black, shining 
sclerotium from two to three inches long. These sclerotia pro- 
duce the first year spermagonia as pustular bodies partially im- 
bedded in the substance of the sclerotium, and later, after one 
year at least, the ascigerous form, which consists of a globular 
head supported on a long, slender stipe. The asci are embedded 
in cavities in this head. The fungus has been named by Fries, 
Lphelis, from the sclerotial and spermagonial stage, and by Speg- 
8azzini as Balansia, from the ascigerous form. It has also been 
described by Cooke & Massee in Annals of Botany. Unlike 
Ordinary Claviceps, the tissue of the host plant is included within 
the substance of the sclerotium. He noted, on authority of Prof. 
Rolfs, that the veterinarian of the Florida Experiment Station 
is at work upon the question whether these sclerotia produce a 
disease similar to ergotism, and thought that its destructive action 
upon the terrible sand-burr would be worth looking into. 
The second fungus was a species, probably new, of Caoma, 
attacking the cones of Pinus palustris and P. Cubensis. When 
attacked, the cones become broader and stouter than the healthy 
ones, and assume a chocolate-brown exterior. The exterior 
layer upon breaking away, as it sometimes does ina single night, 
reveals the immense sorus of chrome-yellow spores, which ren- 
ders the cone conspicuous for at least one-eighth of a mile. 
The third interesting species, found upon the leaves of the 
Sour orange in the hummock land of Florida, appears as a whitish 
or gray strand, which ascends the young branch, and on reaching 
the leaf spreads itself out on the upper surface in a thin, whitish 
layer, and causes a wilting and final death of the leaf. From the 
