302 BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 



CURRENT LITERATURE. 



Notes on some Species in the third and eleventh centuries of Ellis' North American 

 Fungi, by W. G. Farlow. From Proc. Anier. Acad., XVIII, pp. 65-85. 



This article is prefaced by an extended discussion on the proper selection 

 of a name for the species where several stages or forms have been described as 

 belonging to separate genera. To conform as nearly as possible to the general 

 usage of systematists, it seems necessary to adopt the oldest specific name with- 

 out regard to the stage for which it was used. This is tacitly admitted by the 

 author who objects, however, to applying the rule to Uredineous plants, owing 

 to the difficulty of identifying with certainty many forms named by the older 

 mycologists. He therefore advocates the suppression of all aecidial names and 

 of such uredo names as are of doubtful identity, thus confining the selection of 

 the name to the teleutosporic forms and the unquestionable uredo forms. This 

 is a commendable method on the score of accuracy, but it is to be feared will 

 eventually fail of success owing to the tendency to revert to the more general 

 usage, particularly as it is already adopted by Winter, the author of the most 

 important contribution to the systematic treatment of Uredinece, and other emi- 

 nent German writers. The period of confusion in nomenclature should be 

 passed as soon as possible, and an important factor in securing this end is uni- 

 formity of methods. 



After giving a caution regarding the hasty grouping of secidial forms with 

 the supposed teleutosporic stages, the author proceeds to the annotation of nearly 

 a fourth of the species of the two centuries. No. 1003 gives an iridium on 

 Anemone nemorosa and on Ranunculus abortivus under the name of ^U. Ranuncu- 

 lacearum DC, both of which Dr. Farlow inclines to think distinct from the 

 true .E Ranunculacearum. No. 277-8 Oceoma luminatum is referred to at length, 

 and the suggestion made that it may be the secidial stage of some Phragmidium. 

 Nos. 247 and 248 are the forms of rust on Rhus known respectively as Pileolaria 

 brevipes with depressed spores, which the Doctor holds to be the uredo form, and 

 Uredo Toxicodendri with spirally marked ovate spores which he considers the 

 teleutosporic form, although Winter has reversed them. These, he thinks, 

 should not be separated from the genus Uromyces, and that the name to be 

 adopted is Urom. Toxicodendri Berk. & Hav. No. 239, the Uromyces on Sparlina 

 striata, described in Bulletin of Bussey Inst. II, 243, as a variety of U. fund, is 

 erected to a species and described as Urom. Spartince, Farlow. It has yet only 

 been -found at Wood's Holl, Mass. No. 240 is Urom. Peckianus, Farlow, on Briz- 

 opyruni spicatum, of which a description is given. It is closely related to U. Dac- 

 tylitis, and ranges from Mass. to N. Jer. No. 1067 is a new species of Uromyces 

 on Melanthera hastata, from Florida, of which a description is given as Urom. 

 Martinii Farlow. No. 1068 was issued as the secidial form of the last species 

 under the same name, but as it is found to follow instead of precede the teleu- 

 tosporic form, the assumption is considered hasty. No. 253, Puccinia Lobelias, 

 Gerard, has priority, and is to be substituted as the name for P. microsperma, er- 

 roneously printed P. microspora. No. 257, Puccinia aculcata, should be superce- 

 ded by P. Podophylli, Schw., an earlier name. No. 260, the Puccinia on Proser- 

 pinaca, is described as a distinct species, P. Proser pinnae, Farlow, with the 

 reservation that it may prove, upon examination, to be the same as that de- 

 scribed by Vize, from California. The species is probably wide-spread, as it 

 has been collected in Iowa. No. 1029, Puccinia emaculata, Schw., on Panieum 

 capillare, is described. It is a species whose name has been a matter of uncer- 

 tainty for a long time, being most often called P. Graminis var. brevicarpa, Peck, 

 but the examination of Schweinitzian specimens now puts the matter at rest. 

 No. 1051, the strange Puccinia on Bouteloua curtij>endula, is not characterized, al- 

 though the new name, P. vexans, Farlow, is used for it. It is so intimately asso- 

 ciated with Uromyces Brandegei that the two occur in the same sorus, and the 

 spores of the Uromyces resemble the single-celled spores of the Puccinia in all 



