86 GRIFFITHS: CONCERNING SOME WEST AMERICAN SMUTS 
or more large, irregular, highly refractory central areas ; epispore 
thin and smooth. 
On Bouteloua breviseta Vasey, upon the gypsum deposits east 
of Roswell, N. M., May 4, 1903. This smut is very abundant in 
this region, but is easily overlooked because the effect upon the 
host is likely to be considered due to the work of insects. It is 
easily distinguishable from the other two species which appear on 
the leaves and culms of various species of the genus Bouteloua— 
first, by the effect upon the host ; second, by the entire absence of 
pustules, which are always found in the other two species. 
Ustilago Scolochloae sp. nov. 
Fructification of the smut involving the leaves of the upper 
two to four nodes which are reduced to such an extent that the 
blades of the upper ones remain unopened, remainder of the plant 
nearly normal; sori normally epiphyllous, but sometimes hypo- 
phyllous in a few places on the inner, more delicate leaves; 
apparently confined to the blades and seldom if ever occurring on 
the sheaths, long, linear, often confluent the entire length of the 
leaf but the entire surface soon covered with the sooty mass of 
spores ; spores subglobose, uniform in size and shape, 10-13 # in 
diameter, dark, fuscous, but sooty black in mass, densely and unl- 
formly covered with coarse, blunt tubercles. 
On Scolochloa festucacea (Willd.) L., Donner & Blitzen River, 
Harney Valley, Oregon, July, 1902 (Griffiths & Hunter). Closely 
related to Ustilago echinata Schrot. 
UstILaGo Hypopitis (Schl.) Fr. 
A very peculiar effect of this smut upon one of its common 
hosts was observed during the past season about 20 miles east of 
Roswell, N. M. Diéstichhs spicata is very commonly smutted 
with this species in fields and meadows near the Pecos river where — 
it is reduced but little, if any, in size. In some of the salty 
ravines which lead up through the gypsum bluffs, however, the — 
host appears to be very much reduced in size by the smut. The 
internodes are very much shortened and the whole plant reduced : 
to an inch or two in length, with the leaves and sheaths reduced 
to bract-like structures or in some cases the upper two to four 
nodes confined within one swollen sheath, presenting an appeal 
ance not unlike the common smut upon species of Hilaria. 
