Concerning some West American fungi 
DAVID GRIFFITHS 
The following species from my personal collections of the past 
four or five years appear to be new or worthy of record: 
Sclerospora Farlowii sp. nov. 
Fructification of fungus in leaf-sheaths, especially in the upper 
expanded one, less frequently in the leaves and culms, and rarely 
in the spikes ; forming irregular grayish-black discolorations which 
are darker around the edges of the infected area; odspores sub- 
globose, 28 to 45 in diameter, deep dark reddish-brown, and 
often appearing black and opaque, imbedded in tissues of the host, 
and when isolated having a few irregular fragments of mycelial 
tissue adhering. 
On Chloris elegans H.B.K., Cochise, Arizona, October, 1900. 
This is one of the commonest fungi throughout southern Ari- 
zona and northern Sonora. Several small collections have been 
made of it by myself. It has been seen many times. Invariably 
the mode of attack is the same whether it is abundant or not. 
The effect upon the plantis never serious so far as my observation 
goes. Indeed, no case has been observed where it was thought 
that the plants were at all reduced in size by the parasite. 
The type is a specimen so marked from the above collection in 
my private herbarium. A duplicate is in the herbarium of the 
United States Department of Agriculture, and the same thing is in 
the herbarium of Professor W. G. Farlow, who has examined the 
species and to whom it is dedicated. 
Ustilago Microchloae sp. nov. 
Sori in the inflorescence whose parts are transformed into a jet- 
black, shining mass in which the individual spikelets are plainly 
distinguishable, or the entire surface of the rachis and spikelets 
may be involved in one continuous sorus extending the entire 
length of the inflorescence, which may be of normal length when 
only individual florets are affected, or very much shortened in 
other cases; spores subglobose, ovoid, and often irregular, very 
variable, 12 to 18 in diameter, shiny jet-black in mass, dark- 
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