210 lU/nois State Lahovatonj of Natural History. 



The species now assigned to this genus were formerly sep- 

 arated, and a part of them, having the gelatinous material 

 more or less columnar, made to form the genus Podisoma. 

 The distinction is not properly generic, and at present most 

 mycologists unite all the species under the generic name of 

 Gymnosporamjium. The European species agree in the spores 

 having a single septum, and this is usually made a characteris- 

 tic of the genus, but some of the American species, otherwise 

 similar, have from one to six-celled spores, so that the descrip- 

 tion of the genus is necessarily extended to include them. The 

 spores are produced in the spring instead of in the autumnal 

 months, as are the teleutospores of most Uredineo'; but they 

 germinate in May and June, hence have not a long period of 

 rest. The promycelium is rapidly formed, under the proper 

 conditions, from the mature spores, and sporidia are abundantly 

 produced. These latter are believed to develop only on species 

 of Pomea\ and produce the secidial growths included under the 

 so-called genus Ihrstelia. This alternation of growth has been 

 several times experimentally shown, but for the purposes of 

 this paper the gecidial forms are given b}^ themselves. The 

 mycelium of the teleutosporic form is sometimes annual, but 

 more often perennial, and produces remarkable gall-like dis- 

 tortions upon the host. 



G. macropus, Lk. 



Sporiferous masses aggregated in globose tufts, surrounded 

 at the base by a ring formed by the raised epidermis and sub- 

 epidermal tissue of the host-plant, orange-yellow, cylindrical, 

 acuminate, half an inch to an inch long, or at times longer; 

 spores ovate-acute, two-celled, generally constricted at the sep- 

 tum, and with a papilla at the apex, 15-20 by 46-60 /*; proniy- 

 celia generally four from each cell. Mycelium annual, produc- 

 ing globose or reniform knots in the smaller branches. On 

 leaves and smaller branches of Ji(niperus Virginiana. (Farlow, 

 Gymnosporangia of the IT. S., p. 18.) 



On Juniperus Virginiana: Union, May 15. 4705; Cham- 

 paign, March 16, 2465. 



