Concerning some West American Fungi 
By Davip GRIFFITHS 
This writing is intended to supplement the information sup- 
plied on some conventional herbarium labels recently distributed, 
and to call attention more in detail to certain species which appear 
to the author to have hitherto escaped the attention of mycologists. 
All species described are being liberally distributed so that the 
determinations may be easily verified. 
Tilletia externa sp. nov. 
Fructification of fungus occurring between the seed coats of 
the ovary where a black powdery mass of spores is formed sur- 
rounding the entire ovary, in some cases, but always more 
abundantly developed on the upper half, and often not appearing 
on the lower half at all. Spores black in mass, dark fuscous when 
viewed singly by transmitted light, very variable in size and shape, 
subglobose to elliptical, or irregular and angular, 10-13 / ee 
18-23 y or the subglobose spores 17-21 yp in diameter, the con 
tents granular; epispore thin, smooth, surrounded by a hyaline 
envelope 2—2%4 » in thickness. (Fig. 1.) s 
Affecting ovaries of Carex filifolia Nutt. (305) * on Burnetts 
Ranch near Buffalo, Wyo., Aug. 1898 (Williams & Griffiths). 
The fungus was especially abundant and destructive in this locality 
on high dry knolls at an altitude of about 4000 feet. 
Tilletia Earlei sp. nov. 
Fungus producing its spores usually in the next to the uppet 
internode of the culm, transforming the parenchymatous use 
within and between the vascular bundles into a light brown por: 
dery mass of spores which finally ruptures the tissue between 
bundles producing long fissures a centimeter to a decimeter bc 
length, the edges of the fissure recurving so as to expose and " 
tribute the mass of spores; culms usually much swollen ee 
otherwise distorted and separated from the sheath. Spores. ie 
brown in mass but only very slightly tinted when viewed singly, 
globose, evenly covered with very coarse tubercles and surroun 
: a 
= * All figures used in this manner refer to the serial numbers of West Ameri¢ 
ungi. 
290 
