PREFACE. 



Of the many interesting problems involved in the elu- 

 cidation of the life-history of the various members of the 

 fungus kingdom, there are none more important to the 

 agriculturist than those connected with the development 

 of the Uredineae and Ustilagineae. Not alone to the culti- 

 vator of plants are these phenomena of interest, but also 

 to the student of botany and microscopy. 



The work of Tulasne in France, and of De Bary in 

 Germ.any, during the past thirty years, laid the foundation 

 of our knowledge of the biology of these fungi. More 

 recently the continued researches of De Bary, of Schroter, 

 the late Dr. Winter, Wolff, Kiihn, Magnus, Woronin, and 

 Hartig in Germany, of Oersted, Rostrup, and Nielsen in 

 Denmark, of Fischer Von Waldheim in Russia, and of 

 Farlow and Thaxter in America, have so increased our 

 information as to render necessary a re-classification of our 

 British species. • 



The object of the present work is to supply the British 

 student, not only with improved descriptions of these para- 

 sites, but also with an account of their life-history as far 

 as this is at present known. 



