Leptopucciuia. 2 1 



J 



Biology. — The sori occur on yellow spots on the leaves, which 

 often, as the leaves expand, fall out and leave circular perforations. On 

 the stems the sori are elongated, often with pointed extremities ; they 

 fall off as the stems grow, and leave elliptical wounds, at the bottom of 

 which the woody parts of the stem are exposed. The sori often occur 

 on the calyces and on the young fruit. The teleutospores readily 

 germinate in water. I have infected cotton plants with the promy- 

 celial spores, but obtained no result. 



This fungus was first described by Montagne in 1852, from a speci- 

 men from Chili. I have in my herbarium a specimen from Melbourne, 

 Australia, gathered in 1865. It is said, however, to have been found 

 in Algeria at an early date on Lavatera cretica. In 1869, it appeared 

 in Spain.* In April, 1873, Durieu found it near Bordeaux, and in the 

 same month Decaisne at Montpellier. In June and July, it appeared 

 in England, and did great damage to the hollyhocks. It was found by 

 Messrs. Roper, Hussey, Paxton, and Parfitt at Exeter, Salisbury, 

 Chichester, and soon after by myself at King's Lynn. In October, 

 Schroter found it in Bavaria ;. in January, 1874, Beltrani-Pisani met 

 with it at Rome ; and in April it was seen at Panisperma, in June at 

 Erlangen, in July at Dusseldorf, and in the course of a year or two 

 spread all over Europe from Athens to Denmark and Finland. So 

 virulently did it attack the hollyhocks that for several years they 

 almost disappeared from our gardens. It seems to have spent its 

 energy, as these plants are again beginning to be cultivated. Kellerman, 

 in 1874, pointed out that germ-tubes of the promycelial spores insinu- 

 ated themselves between the epidermal cells, and he described the 

 haustoria on the mycelium. ' He found that on plants cultivated indoors 

 spore-formation continued throughout the winter. 



Puccinia circsese. Pers. 



Teleutospores — Sori compact, pulvinate, round, at first yellowish, 

 then brown, often circinate. Spores two kinds, simikar in form, 

 but differing in colour, those formed earlier in the year being 

 paler, those formed later being a darker brown, fusiform, with 

 thick (6 or 7/x) conical apices, attenuated towards the stem, 

 very slightly constricted in the middle, 23-40 x io-i4/>t. 

 Pedicels hyaline. 



Synonym. 

 Puccinia circcecB, Pers. " Disp. Meth.," p. 39. Winter in 



* For an account of the spread of tliis fungus in Europe, see Egoii lline, 

 " .Studicn zur Pflanzcngcograpliie." 18S0. 



