Concerning some West American smuts 
DaviID GRIFFITHS 
Many of the following notes and descriptions have been pre- 
pared for nearly a year and are based mainly upon collections 
made in 1902 and 1903. The extensive territory visited during 
these two years has naturally yielded unrecorded species as well 
as furnished additional data regarding imperfectly known forms. 
This writing furnishes descriptions of only a part of the new spe- 
cies collected. 
The writer is indebted to Professor G. P. Clinton for his kind- 
Ness in examining and giving critical judgment upon many of the 
species mentioned here. All the specimens discussed will be 
found in the U. S. National Herbarium and in my private collec- 
tion, Nearly all of them are also in Professor Clinton’s private 
herbarium. 
Sorosporium contortum sp. nov. 
Sori involving the entire upper internode and head which are 
transformed into a cylindrical or fusiform black compact mass, the 
Spore-balls wearing away from the outside gradually by abrasion 
Or becoming reduced to a powdery mass within the unopened 
sheath, very variable in length, 5-30 mm. by .6-1.5 mm., com- 
pletely enclosed within the upper sheath, the internode and head 
being reduced to a comparatively very short columella, the re- 
mainder of the cylinder consisting of the bases of the delicate, 
much contorted, partially developed awns; sterile membrane 
long-cylindrical and usually extending fully half its length beyond 
the sheath, the basal portion enveloping the sorus, but the exte- 
rior half or more sterile and containing only the distal parts of the 
awns, usually more or less contorted, rupturing easily, and becom- 
ing lacerated, giving to the plant a very ragged appearance ; its 
cells hyaline, cuboidal to somewhat elongated with longitudinal, 
tib-like thickenings ; spore-balls subglobose to ovoid, and often 
angular, many-spored, 50-62 yz by 50-80 4; spores subglobose to 
angular-compressed, dark fuscous, 5-8 »# in diameter, with thin, 
smooth epispores, homogeneous contents, and usually very faint, 
central or eccentric nuclear area. 
On Andropogon contortus L., Santa Rita Mountains, Arizona 
(within the area recently fenced by the U.S. Department of Agri- 
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