Contributions to a better Knowledge of the Pyrenomycete 



A NEW SPECIES OF ERGOT 



By David Griffiths 



After being led to believe that the fungus flora of the arid re- 

 gions of southern Arizona was next to nil, the writer, while on a 

 short trip in the San Pedro and Sulphur Spring Valleys, was more 

 than pleased by finding several very interesting parasitic things 

 as common and, in places as abundant, as in the moister and 

 cooler regions of the North and the East. The principal object 

 of the trip was the acquisition of seeds of native forage plants for 

 experimentation. The greater number of the fungi secured were 

 therefore, naturally associated with forage plants. No less than a 

 dozen smuts and a much larger number of rusts were found in a 

 short two-week trip. As far as the material has been studied, 

 the most interesting parasitic fungus secured is a species of Clavi- 

 ceps, the description of which is the occasion for the present paper. 

 A few general remarks on some of the characteristics of the para- 

 sitic fungus flora of the portions of the two valleys visited, together 

 with that of the Santa Cruz in the vicinity of Tucson will be of 

 some interest, and, possibly, pave the way for future publications. 



It should be stated that the Sulphur Spring Valley is a basin 

 rather than a valley and is of about 2000 feet greater altitude than 

 the Santa Cruz, while the San Pedro is approximately an average 

 between them. On account of the excessive drouths of the summer 

 of 1900, the Santa Cruz was, during the month of October, almost 

 devoid of the more valuable nutritious grasses. The Sulphur 

 Spring, on the contrary, had a luxuriant growth of Bouteloua, 

 Aristida, Hilaria, Pappophorum, Chloris, Triodea, and Andro- 

 pogon. The San Pedro was about an average between the two- 

 It is needless to state that the condition of the vegetation was a 

 good index to the amount and the character of the precipitation 

 which had occurred since the middle of July. The grasses which 

 grew in such abundance in the higher valley occurred commonly 



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