88 GRIFFITHS: CONCERNING SOME WEst AMERICAN SMUTS 
September, 1902, where it affected every plant upon an acre or 
more of ground in the vicinity of an old corral where the soil was 
thoroughly tramped. 
Tilletia Wilcoxiana sp. nov. 
Sorus produced in ovary of the host which becomes inflated to 
an olive green fusiform body, three or four times its normal size; 
spores light brown in mass, but hyaline by transmitted light, sub- 
globose, 15-19 # in diameter with a narrow, hyaline enveloping 
membrane but little exceeding the stout, blunt, uniformly dis- 
tributed projections on the very thick epispore. 
On Stipa eminens Andersonit Vasey, Santa Monica, California, 
Spring, 1901 (Dr. H. E. Hasse). Mr. E. N. Wilcox first dis- 
covered this smut while studying the genus Stipa (see Bot. Gaz. 
34: 66. 1902). + The same host infested by the same species of 
smut was collected in the original locality by Dr. Hasse again in 
April, 1902. In all the material at hand the spores are slightly 
under mature and the description so far as it relates to the color of 
the spores may have to be modified later. 
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TILLETIA PULCHERRIMA E, & G. 
A very destructive smut upon Panicum obtusum H.B.K. 
throughout southern Arizona. It has been observed in a dozen 
localities since the autumn of tgoo. It is very easily overlooked. 
A collection of it was made on the Empire Ranch, Santa Rita 
Mountains, Arizona, September, 1902. 
Thecaphora Thornberi sp. nov. 
Sorus in ovary which is inflated more or less symmetrically 
to a spherical body 4~7 or more mm. in horizontal diameter which 
usually slightly exceeds the vertical, the modified tissues rupturing 
irregularly at maturity ; spore-balls reddish brown in mass, 70- 
1004 by 80-120, oval, subspherical or sometimes compressed 
angular, opaque at maturity with the individual spores scarcely 
distinguishable ; spores apparently inseparably united, with thin 
walls, granular contents, and without visible nuclear areas, about 
10 by 134. When young the exterior walls of the spores appea! 
slightly reticulated, but this is entirely lost at maturity. e 
On Clathorix lanuginosa Nutt., Santa Rita Mountains, Arizona, — 
about four miles north of Helvetia on the Tucson road, October — 
4, 1902 (Griffiths & Thornber). It was abundant in this place 
but has not been observed elsewhere. So 
__U. S, DePaRTMeNT oF AGRICULTURE. 
