Brachypnccinia. 1S7 



or ciicinating. Spores ovate, round, or subpyriform, ecliinu- 

 late, brown, 25-30 X 25|U. Secondary : Sori small, very pro- 

 fuse, round, cinnamon-brown,, soon pulverulent, often confluent. 

 Spores subglobose, brown, echinulate, 20-251U, in diameter. 

 Telentospores — Sori amphigenous, minute, blackish, round, pul- 

 verulent, surrounded by the ruptured epidermis. Spores 

 obtuse, shortly oval, ovoid, or even subglobose, constriction 

 almost none, brown, echinulate, especially above, 30-40 x 

 20-2 5/i.. Pedicels short, hyaline, deciduous. 



Synonyms. 



Puccinia variabilis. Grev., " Flor. Edin.," p. 431; " Flor. 

 Scot.," t. 75. Cooke, "Hdbk.," p. 500; "Micro. Fungi," 4th 

 edit., p. 207, t. 4, figs. 82, 83. Johnst., "Flor. Berw.," vol. vi. 

 p. 196, al'l in part. 



Puccinia floscidosorum (Alb. and Schw.). Winter in Rabh., 

 " Krypt. Flor.," p. 206, in part. 



Exsiccaii. 



Cooke, i. 539; ii. 128. Vize, "Micro. Fungi Bri.t.," 53. 



On Taraxacum officinale. 

 April to November. 



Biology. — The spermogonia and primary uredospores occur early 

 in the year, about the end of April. Mr. Grove considers this species 

 has a true ^cidium {^c. grevillei, Grove), which is scattered over 

 the leaves in small clusters. If this had been the case, I think I must 

 have met with it, as I have for many years searched the Taraxacum 

 in the neighbourhood of King's Lynn for the ^cidium. It has been 

 asserted that the PucciniEe on the Composite' belong to one species, 

 but this is clearly incorrect. I found, for instance, that the jecidio- 

 spores of P. lapsancp, placed on Taraxacum officinale and Lapsatta 

 communis in a duplicated culture, produced the uredospores on the 

 latter in twenty days, but had no effect upon Taraxacum (Exp. 497, 

 498), and conversely the germinating teleutospores of P. lapsaucr pro- 

 duced the secidiospores on L. communis in twenty days, but had no 

 effect upon the Taraxacum (Exp. 499, 500). I also found that the 

 teleutospores on Leontodon autumnalis {Y.x\). 620), and the uredospores 

 on Centaurea nigra (923), when applied to Taraxacum offici7iale^ pro- 

 duced no effect, although they readily infected their respective host- 

 plants. 



P. iaraxaci is a much more common species tlian P. variabilis. 



