40 - 
Explanation of Figures. 
Figure Br was drawn from a dried specimen; the others from fresh material. 
Ai, Buxbaumia indusiata, Capsule, dorsal aspect 7; A2, lateral aspect 
7; A3, spore X 290. t 
Bi, Buxbaumia aphylia. Capsule, dorsal aspect * 7; Bz, lateral aspect of 
same < 7; B3, spore X 290. 
The Mint Rust npon the Variegated Balm—At a commer- 
cial greenhouse recently visited the writer was surprised to find 
a quantity of variegated or silver balm (Jelissa officinalis) infested 
with the mint rust Puccinia Menthe Pers.). This fungus is one of 
the most common and widespread of all the genuine rusts, having 
no less than thirty species of hosts scattered through the following 
and other genera of the Labiate, namely: Mentha, Thymus, Cal- 
amintha, Nepeta, Cunila, Monarda, Hedeoma, the leading American — 
host genera being Mentha, Pycnanthemum and Monarda. a 
As Dr. Burrill notes* the American form of the species is 
markedly different from the European in the echinulate teleuto- 
spores. It is this forma senlinens as Saccardo ee it, that 
infests the AZelissa. : 
The host is an Old World species, and it is interesting to note — 
that it has adopted the American style, so to speak, for its form of 
rust. The same is true of the Mentha piperita (peppermint), the 
only other member of the mint family that the writer has seen 
badly attacked by the rust while growing under glass. 
There is a large field for this rust within the greenhouse should 
it spread to one or more of a long list of the members of the mint 
family. The Coleus alone, in all its great number of popular varie- 
ties, might, in becoming a victim to Puccinia Menthe, cause as 
much alarm among commercial and other gardeners as the rust 
of the hollyhock or of the carnation. | 
There seems to be no choice whatever on the part of the para- 
site between the etiolated and green parts of the balm leaves as 
far as one may judge from the even distribution of the rust sori- 
This is as might be expected, for the Puccinia is a deep, wide 
feeder throughout the tissues of the host, and fruiting is the last 
stage of its oe 
* Parasitic Fungi of Illinois p. 190. 
