126 Report of the Botanist of the 



upon eeedlmg beds and old neglected beds, as well as upon vol- 

 unteer asparagus, on Long Island about the first of June. In the 

 above section where ridging is practiced this stage is rarely seen 

 on the cutting beds, but as seeding beds and neglected beds are 

 always plentiful there is an abundance of the spring form. 



In this first stage the spores are formed in cup-shaped pus- 

 tules. These pustules or cups are grouped in clusters; hence 

 the name of " cluster-cup." Examination with a lens shows 

 that the cups are often of two kinds, associated together. Those 

 of one form are called spermogonia, while the others, in which 

 the spores are borne in bead-like chains, are called secidia (see 

 Plate X, Fig. 2, a and 6). These cups are frequently arranged 

 in oval and spindle-shaped groups upon the stem as shown in 

 Fig. 1, Plate X, but nearly the same shapes are assumed by the 

 other stages of the rust, hence this cannot be given as a definite 

 characteristic. The cups never show as rifts or slits as do the 

 later stages. At first they are greenish-yellow in color, but as 

 they mature they change to an orange-yellow. Sometimes the 

 cluster of cups shows only watery pustules; these are the sper- 

 mogonia. In June, 1000, this stage was more prevalent on Pal- 

 metto seedling beds than on any other variety. 



Uredo stage. — The second form, commonly called the " sum- 

 mer " stage and " red-rust " stage, is the one usually first noticed 

 by growers. It is in this stage of growth that the rust increases 

 and spreads most -rapidly, and apparently does the greatest 

 amount of damage. In this form the epidermis, or skin, of the 

 asparagus appears to be covered with slits and rifts from which 

 red granules or spores are exuding. These rifts are often 

 grouped in oval and elliptical clusters on the stems, as in the 

 first stage; but, instead of being cup-shaped pustules, they al- 

 ways occur as slits in the bark. It is this stage that gives the 

 asparagus fields their peculiar brown color in such a short in- 

 terval of time, and coats machinery and workmen with a red 

 dust. The spores are one-celled, smooth, rather thin-walled and 

 of a reddish-brown color (see Fig. 3, u, Plate XI). 



