Vol. XX VI I. 

 191U 



j ^IcAlvinf,, SmiUs of Aiislralia. n 



than a superficial resemblance, and that it was a rust, and not a 

 smut. Second observations, as well as second thoughts, are not 

 always the best. 



I have thus been able to reduce the two species of Tilletia given 

 in Cooke's " Handbook " to one, and it is always a greater pleasure 

 to me to reduce the number of species than to increase them, 

 although in an island-continent like Australia, with its varied and 

 unique flora, it is impossible to study this or any of the other 

 great divisions of the fungi without adding considerably to the 

 number of new forms, and, in some cases, as in Uromycladium 

 among the rusts, to discover new genera. It is this sense of 

 novelty, this certainty of adding to the sum of human knowledge, 

 which gives a charm and a zest to the study. 



NUMBER OF SPECIES — INDIGENOUS AND INTRODUCED. 



I am indebted to members of this Club, particularly Mr. C. 

 French, jun., and Mr. Reader, for a number of species as a result 

 of their various collecting trips, also to the Government 

 Botanist for kindly placing at my disposal the valuable specimens 

 in the National Herbarium. Altogether the total number of 

 species recorded for Australia is 68, and I feel certain that a 

 number of species still remain to be discovered, particularly on 

 our native grasses. In Western Australia, for instance, only those 

 species are known which attack cultivated crops, and what a 

 wide field there is for extending our knowledge of what might 

 possibly prove new genera ! In Victoria 46 species are known, 

 and only 23 in New South Wales, or exactly half the number, 

 indicating how much we owe to field work in our own State. 



In distinguishing between indigenous and introduced species, 

 one has to be guided largely by the host-plants. In the case of the 

 cultivated cereals and some grasses there is historic evidence as 

 to their introduction, and, generally speaking, a species which 

 is found growing wild amid natural surroundings may be regarded 

 as indigenous, while those found amid artificial surroundings, or as 

 escapes from cultivation, may be regarded as introduced. There 

 are, however, exceptions to this. The flag smut of wheat has 

 long been known in Australia, and only recently discovered in 

 India and Japan, and seems to be a native. Cy^iodon dactylou 

 is also a native grass, according to the late Baron von Mueller, 

 and although the smut upon it has been found elsewhere, it may 

 be regarded provisionally as indigenous. According to the 

 principles laid down there are only ten species of smuts which may 

 be safely regarded as having been introduced. 



Curiously enough the smut on Australian Couch-grass has only 

 been found in New South Wales and Victoria in one district — in 

 the neighbourhood of Sydney, and at Toorak, near Melbourne. 

 No doubt it is much more widely distributed than this, and 

 members of this Club might assist in settling the extent of its dis- 



