Tilletia horrida Tak. on Rice Plant in South Carolina 
By ALEXANDER P. ANDERSON 
At the time of the discovery of the smut on Oryza sativa L., in 
South Carolina, in 1898, the somewhat close similarity between it 
and the then already described Ti//etia corona Scribn. (now T. ro- 
tundata (Arth.) Ell. & Ev.), led the writter to suppose that the rice 
smut in South Carolina was identical with 7) rotundata (Arth.) 
Ell. & Ev., which had been found on Panicum and other grasses 
in the United States. 
Shortly before, in 1896, Takashi described a new smut on the 
rice plant in Japan.* In my paper? the original description of 
T. horrida Tak. was> copied, and the suggestion made that the 
South Carolina rice smut and the one in Japan might be the same. 
No specimens of 7: horrida had at that time been seen by the 
writer, but since then it has been found in seed rice imported from 
Japan. The spores and affected ovaries of the Japanese rice smut, 
and the South Carolina one, are identically the same in all their 
characters, so that there can be no doubt but that the rice smut 
found at Georgetown, South Carolina, was introduced through 
seed rice imported from Japan. 
Upon inquiry I found that Japanese seed rice had been sent to 
Georgetown, South Carolina, by the Clyde Steamship Company 
in 1896 and experimented upon by two planters near Georgetown, t 
which explains the appearance of 7. horrida Tak. at this place. 
That the rice smut at Georgetown, South Carolina, was Tilletia 
horrida Tak., has already been called attention to by Professor F. 
S. Earle.§ This had probably been overlooked by Professor L. 
H. Pammel in his recent bulletin on the Grasses of Iowa,|| where 
he makes mention of Zi//etia rotundata (Arth.) Ell. & Ev., as oc- 
curring on the rice plant in South Carolina. 
*Tokio Bot. Mag. 10: 20. 1896. 
t Bot. Gazette, 27 : 472. 1899. 
ft Bull. S. C. Agric. Exp, Sta. 41: 13. 
§ Bot. Gazette, 28°: 138. 1899. 
\| lowa Geol. Survey Bull. 1: 253. 1901. 
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