ON SOME RUSTS AND MILDEWS IN INDIA. 



259 



Schroter describes the uredospores as having three to four germ- 

 pores, and notes that the apex of the teleutospore is thickened to 

 5-6 //.. Saccardo states that the teleutospore pustules are without 

 paraphyses, whilst the absence of any reference to them through- 

 out Schroter's description leads to the conclusion that the European 

 species is entirely without them. The fungus has a very wide 

 distribution. Thus, in Saccardo's ' Sylloge ' it is recorded in Italy, 

 France, Germany, North and South America, and South Africa. 



Melampsora Lini Pers., on Linum nsitatissimnm L. ("Ulsee"). 



I obtained excellent specimens of a species of Melampsora, 

 gathered on the 4th April, 1890, at Dumraon, N. W. Provinces. 

 The leaves were very extensively attackedwith orange -red pustules, 

 oval to round, but coalescing freely, and often involving most of the 

 leaf-surface. These pustules are mostly epiphyllous, and they are 

 often surrounded by a wall of epidermis giving them the appear- 

 ance of the recidial fructification of Phragmidium. In other parts 

 dark crusts might be seen which were the teleutospore beds. 



The uredospores are pale orange-red, and are accompanied by 

 colourless capitate paraphyses, sometimes of very large size, the 

 head exceeding the spores in diameter. They are round (fig. 4, a) 

 to oval, and the dried spores, when just immersed in water, 

 measured 21-18 x 18-16 /*. But after lying forty-eight hours in 

 water, most spores become spherical, measuring 24 to 21 ^. in 

 diameter. The epispore is sparsely beset with spines. I could not 

 ascertain the number of germ-pores. The paraphyses had heads 

 measuring 30-28 x 20 /x. 



The teleutospores are long, cylindrical, or prismatic single- 

 celled bodies, very firmly adherent to one another laterally 

 (fig. 4, b). They each exhibit a central nuclear space, and 

 measured, after lying forty-eight hours in water, 54-56 x 10-9 /*. 

 They did not germinate after lying some days in water even up to 

 June, and I conclude a period of rest is necessary before this can 

 take place. 



Remarks.— This is no doubt Melampsora Lini Pers. The spore 

 measurements of the Indian species are compared with the state- 

 ments of European authorities in the following table : — 



On this it need only be remarked that the Indian variety has 

 much narrower spores than the European, and that it has also 

 large-headed paraphyses. These differences are not, however, 

 important. Taking some grains from extensively attacked plants, 

 I found that twenty-eight of them weighed against twenty sound 

 grains. The fungus has a very wide distribution. Saccardo 

 records it in Italy, Dalmatia, Britain, France, Austria, Switzer- 



s2 



