272 Transactions of the 



under surface of the leaves of the wild rose, and another form which 

 was also common on oak leaves, laurels, and other species, and 

 which will be referred to presently, 



Peridermium ])ini was plentiful on the leaves of the silver fir 

 and other pines, which grew in abundance in every direction, and a 

 similar fungus was commonly noticed on the pine leaves about 

 Dalhousie, more than a hundred miles from the hills north of 

 Deyrah Dhoon. 



The various grasses as well as the leaves of Mudwa (a species of 

 millet) and the leaves of the rice plant, which is cultivated in many 

 of the valleys, appeared to possess their share of fungi. 



In the accompanying Plate the portions of leaves have been 

 drawn the natural size from the actual specimens, and the spores 

 are magnified about 320 diameters. 



In a valley about twenty miles from the military station of 

 Landour, between Deyrah Dhoon and Dunooltie, but close to and 

 behind a high hill at the latter place, there is a considerable 

 extent of forest, principally composed of a species of boxwood tree 

 (Buxus), from 20 to 30 feet high, and with wide-spreading 

 branches and with stems averaging from a few inches to 1-^ feet in 

 diameter. During my travels of many hundred miles through the 

 Himalayas I never happened to come across a single specimen of 

 box tree except in the place mentioned, and in which they appeared 

 to grow well. 



The under surface of most of the leaves contained a dark-brown 

 fungus, resembling in outward appearance an ^cidium, varying 

 in diameter from ^ to more than a ^ of an inch, and frequently 

 two or three of these orbicular patches may be found on one leaf. 



The peridium bursts regularly in circular patches and the 

 margins become irregular and recurved, exposing the dark-brown 

 spherical spores. The spores appear to be peculiar and to belong 

 to the f^enus Uromyees, having short peduncles, a thick cell-wall, 

 and a light amber-coloured endochrome, which communicates exter- 

 nally by a funnel-shaped orifice on the side opposite the attachment 

 of the peduncle, i. e. the upper part of the spore. This description 

 will be better understood by referring to Fig. 1, which represents 

 a box leaf with the fungus in situ, and Fig. 2, which shows three 

 of the spores magnified. [ TJromyces ambiens, Cooke.] 



Fig. 3 represents spores from the under surface of the leaf 

 of a plant which I fail to recognize, and which exhibits small light- 

 brown spots made up of an aggregate collection of oval yellowish 

 spores attached by short peduncles to the epidermis of the leaf 

 (Trichohasis). Tlie plant apparently belongs to the order Convol- 

 vulacea, is herbaceous, about 2 feet in height, and the stem, &c., 

 contains a milky juice as well as the roots, which are used by 

 the natives as a purgative. A species of clematis (probably the 



