]»fEW OR NOTEWOETHT FUKGI 343 



300. AcTiNOisTEMA Aquilegi^ Grove, comb. nov. 



Phyllosticta AquilegicB Roum. & Pat. Rev. Mycol. 1883, p. 28. 



P. aqidlegiicola Brun. Misc. Myc. ii. 33. Sacc. Syll. xi. 477. 



Ascochyta AquilegicB Sacc. Syll. iii. 396 (saltern p.p.). 



Glceosporium Aqiiilegics Tlmm. Pilzfl. Sibir. no. 144. Sacc. Syll. 

 iii. 700. 



G. radiosum Rost. Bot. Tidskr. 1899, p. 269. 



Q. (^Asteroglceum) radiosum Sacc. Syll. xvi. 1004. 



Actinonema pallens Sacc. & Cav. in N. Giorn. Bot. Ital. 1900, 

 vii. 301, f. II 4. Sacc. Syll. xvi. 936. 



Spots whitish- or greyish-brown, with a narrow brown border, 

 irregular, often roundish, \-1 cm. diam., covered with a wdiitish 

 bloom (from the fibrils); fibrils white, epiphyllous, subcuticular, 

 densely radiating, mostly dichotomously branched. Pustules nume- 

 rous, epiphyllous, seated on the fibrils, pale yellowish-brown, at 

 length darker, 50-100 /u diam. S]Dores oblong, very irregular, some- 

 times curved or inequilateral, tapering usually at the base, seldom at 

 both ends, hardly constricted, hyaline, indistinctly guttulate, at first 

 continuous, about 8 ^ long, then 1 -septate, occasionally 2-septate, 

 15-17 X 3-4 ju (or even up to 20 x 5 /x, but rarely). (Tab. 550. f. 18.) 



On living or fading leaves of Aquilegia vulgaris. Saltcoats, 

 Ayrshire (Boyd) ; Kew Gardens ; Hereford. Jul.-Aug. 



Most, possibly all, of the specimens in herbaria named " Asco- 

 chyta Aquilegice " belong to this species * (at least I have seen no 

 true Ascochyta under that name) and, as the spores remain for a long 

 time continuous, the same is probably trvie of all those named Phyl- 

 losticta Aqidlegicd. All of those examined, both English and 

 German, were in poor condition, except those of Mr. Boyd, but this 

 appears to be due to the fact that the parasite is very destructive of 

 the leaf-tissue and the affected parts soon wither and disappear. 

 But the Ayrshire specimens were better preserved and made the con- 

 dition of things quite clear. 



The fibrils are exactly like those of A. Bosce Lib. The con- 

 spicuous ones near the smiace are radiating and situated just beneath 

 the cuticle ; accompanying these are others which penetrate deeply 

 through the epidermal cells into the mesophyll. In A. Rosa the 

 attacked cells become dark purple, but do not at once decay; in 

 A. Acfuilegicd they are quickly destroyed, often leaving " shot-holes." 



It is, of course, now well-known that A. Rosce belongs, not to the 

 Sphaeropsidales as Saccardo classed it, but to the Melanconiales ; had 

 Saccardo recognized this fact, he would not have formed a new sub- 

 genus Asterogloeum for the present species. There is no trace of a 

 pycnidium in either A. Rosce or A. Aquilegice, the pustules are 

 covered only by the cuticle. The pustules of the latter are exactly 

 like those of a Gloeosporium, such as G. curvatum Oud., but those of 

 A. RoscB are much darker and more suggestive (though falsely) of a 

 pycnidium. It may be remarked in passing that the so-called 

 "pycnidium" of Sacidium, which is described as "non-cellular," is 

 nothing but the discoloured cuticle of the host. 



* The word " brunneis " used of the spores in the description in Saccardo 

 (p. 397) must be a slip of the pen. Cf. "/i " for " cm." in the same description. 



