DESCRIPTION OF 1 NEW Vl'NGl's 



oiks would at, once refer them to some of the set with spicate 

 inflorescence." The fructification of the fungus is always found at 

 the ends of flowering shoots and not generally on the larger shoots. 

 This consists mainly of an immense number of cecidia (peridia) 

 dotted thickly over the younger attacked parts of the host. They 

 are bluntly conical bodies about 1 m.m. in height and 1 m.m. in 

 diameter. 



Before proceeding to a detailed description of the fungus. I may 

 here note that it is apparently these ^Eeidia which are eaten. T1k\ 

 are readily scraped off the host. As I understand it, these cecidia 

 having been scraped off are boiled until quite soft, and when cold 

 are rubbed up into a mess with spices and then warmed up and 

 eaten as a relish. Mr. AVroughton writes — " I find all the people eat 

 it freely." 



The first specimen I got through Dr. Cunningham ; if collected 

 immediately before it was sent to him, must have been gathered in 

 July or early August, and the next specimen I got direct from Mr. 

 AVroughton was gathered on the 11th January. Each specimen con- 

 tained ripe cecidia ; but I have no definite information as to the 

 seasons during which the ripe <cci<iia are found, and during which 

 they are absent. From the last specimen sent to me in alcohol it 

 would appear that the cecidi arc produced during the time the host 

 puts forth new shoots; this may be once or twice a year. With 

 these introductory remarks I proceed to a systematic description of 

 the fungus. 



The mycelium apparently pervades every tissue of the parts attack- 

 ed, and gives rise to considerable hypertrophy of the parenchy- 

 matous cells. From this it may be concluded that the mycelium 

 is perennial. It would, however, be interesting to know whether 

 the parts which have once borne cecidia die after this, new shoots 

 from its neighbourhood only being attacked in the next season of 

 vegetative activity, or whether they again bear another crop of cecidia. 

 It is in the highest degree probable that the former is the ease. 

 The mycelium itself is of the ordinary kind common to these para- 

 sites, but is characterised by the formation of innumerable haustoria. 

 These are either button-like intrusions into the cell cavity (as in the 

 Peronosporeae and Ustilaginea^) or simple tubes, frometirnes a 



