45 



A NEW 8MUT TN A NEW GENUS OF GRASS. 

 h\ D. McAlpink, Corresponding Member. 



(Plate i.). 



A grass was sent to me, in November, by Professor Ewart, 

 wliifh lie determined to be a new genus, Saryn; and the ovaries 

 were black and swollen, evidently owing to a smut. They con- 

 tained a black powdery mass wjiich stained the fingers, but 

 without smell; and, on examination, this powder was found to be 

 the spores of a smut. The specimen was from North- West Aus- 

 tralia; and, in a recently published work on 'The Smuts of 

 Australia,' it is remarked " In West Australia only tliose species 

 are known, which attack cultivated crop.s, and tliose occurring 

 on the native flora have 3'et to be discovered." There is no 

 doubt but a rich harvest awaits the smut-collector in West 

 Australia, and the present new species is the first of its kind. 



USTILAGO EWAHTI McAlp. 



Sori in spikelets, forming a black ccwnpact mass, mu(;h swollen, 

 at first enveloped by the firm wall of the ovary, ultimately burst- 

 ing and allowing the l)lack powdery spores to escape. Spores 

 black in the mass, dark brown individually, globose, averaging 

 10-13 /x diam., occasionally ellipsoid (13 x 11 /*), densely covered 

 with pointed spikes 



Germination as in Ustilayo. 



Hah. North- West Australia : Napier, Broome Bay; May, 

 1910 (Ewart). 



On the one-flowered, hermaphrodite spikelets of ISarya stipoidea 

 Ewart and White. 



The basal portion of the long and twisted, persistent awn 

 remains attached for some time to the smutted ovary. 



If a transverse section of a smutted grain is made, the interior 

 is seen to be filled with spores at difterent stages of maturity, 

 intermixed with slender colourless fungus-filaments rounding off 



