255 



Notes on Podisoma. 



By M. C. Cooke, M.A. 



(Read November 24.th, 1871.) 



Since it is evident that some considerable time must elapse before 

 it is possible to publish an " Introduction " to the " Handbook of 

 British Fungi," it has been suggested that from time to time some 

 contributions to this work should be submitted to the Club, espe- 

 cially on species which require the microscope for their discrim- 

 ination. 



It will be remembered by those who have paid any attention to 

 the growth of junipers, that these plants are very subject to pecu- 

 liar parasites, which cause the branches to swell to twice their 

 original diameter, through a length of from one or two, to three 

 or four inches. These gouty swellings in the spring and summer, 

 are from year to year perforated by yellow or orange gelatinous 

 masses, usually of a more or less clavate form, from a quarter of an 

 inch to an inch in length. These tremelloid masses externally and 

 superficially bear considerable resemblance to some sj)ecies of Tre- 

 mella, but the uni septate spores (as they have been called) show a 

 manifest affinity with the brands, or genus Puccinia, of Coniomy- 

 cetous fungi, and are now grouped with them under the two genera 

 Podisoma* and Gymnosporangium. These are therefore somewhat 

 aberrant genera of the order Pucciniai. 



Many mycologists have placed these fungi with Tremella, on 

 account of their tremelloid consistence. Of these may be mentioned 

 "YVulfen,j Bulliard,| Persoon,§ Hoffman, || and in our own country 

 Dickson and Withering. The most recent instance of this mis- 



* Cooke's Handbook of British Fungi, pp. 509. 



t Wulfen in Jacqnin's Collectanea, ii., p. 173, 174. 



% Bulliard, Champignons, p. 223, pi. 427. 



§ Persoon, Dispositions Methodicse Fungorum, p. 38. 



I Hoffman, Vegetabilia Cryptogama, i., p. 33. 



