358 BOTANICAL GAZETTP:. 



brunneis ; sporis obovatis lalvibus longissime pedicellafis. On leaves of Sida 

 humilis Willd. and S. hirsvta, Peradenia, Jan. 1855, Dec. 1867. There are 

 rarely two cystoblasts parallel to each other. 1 



Dr. Winter has a specimen on Sida rhombifolia, l'rom South Africa, and with 

 this he compares Mr. Earle's specimen and finds it to agree. He refers it to 

 its proper genus and calls it Paccinia Thwaitesii, (B. & Br.) In the Linmean 

 Journal, for 1869, is the following : 



Puccinia heterospora B. & C. Soris minutis in glomerulos orbiculares con- 

 gests brunneis ; sporis subglobosis, pedicello deorsum attenuato subiequalibus, 

 demum biseptatis. On the leaves apparently of some malvaceous plant. 2 



I received specimens from Mr. Earle in the fall of 1882, but with the re- 

 sources then at my command was unable to determine them. More recently I 

 have had access to the Curtis collection and references to the above descriptions. 

 A comparison shows Mr. Earle's specimen to be identical with the original 

 of Puccinia heterospora. As I have not seen Uromyces Thwaitesii, I can not say 

 whether it is identical with Puccinia heterosfora or not, but in either case Mr. 

 Earle's specimens must be referred to the latter, which is the older name. 



The host of the Curtis specimen is pretty certainly Sida triqueira. 



In GrcviUea,Vo]. Ill, Dec, 1874, is described Uromyces pulcherrima B. & C. on 

 Abut Hon Texense, from Texas. I have examined the Curtis specimen and can 

 not distinguish it from Puccinia heterospora. The collection also contains speci- 

 mens labeled Uromyces pulcherrima B. & C. on Abutilonparrulum and A noda hastata. 



A. B. Seymour. 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



Dr. Carpenter, at the last meeting of the British Association, illustrated 

 the power living forms have of adapting themselves to environment by the 

 changes in the small-pox bacteria. Formerly the disease was very severe and 

 known as the "black-pox," but at present it exists in a much milder form. 

 During the last siege of Paris, however, the bacteria reverted to the original 

 form and the "black-pox" again appeared. 



We have had Kerner showing how plants have contrived to escape unwel- 

 come insect visits, and our respect for plants has been thereby increased, although 

 constructing a reason for everything is not always safe. But Mr. Alexander 

 Wilson has gone farther, and at the British Association suggested that the 

 closed ovary of the Angiosperms was a contrivance for the ovules to escape the 

 attacks of parasitic fungi. That the closing up of the ovules is a hindrance to 

 the action of the pollen can be understood, and to overcome it we find adapta- 

 tions of tissue, modiheations of structure, changes in the positions of ovules, etc. 

 This outlay, Mr. Wilson reasons, is compensated for by some great advantage, 

 which he concludes to be that already mentioned. He likens the closed ovary 

 to Tyndal and Pasteur's sealed flasks, from which are kept all fungus spores.. 



1 Berkeley and Broome, Ceylon Fungi, in Journ. Linn. Soc, Vol. XIV, p. 02, 1875. 



2 Berkeley and Curtis, Cuban Fungi, in Jonr. Linn. Soc, Vol. X, p. 356, 1869. 



