84 Transactions British Mycological Society. 
HAPALOSPHAERIA DEFORMANS Syd. 
On the anthers of Rubus fruticosus L. near Aberlady, Had- 
dingtonshire, 1904. Collected by Dr A. W. Borthwick. 
This species was first described by Sydow in 1907 (Annales 
Mycologici, Bd. v, 1907, p. 398) from material collected in 
Thuringia, Germany, on Rubus dumetorum. At first only 
mycelium in and among the anthers and isolated spores were 
found and the fungus was accordingly placed in the genus 
Paepalopsis as P. deformans. 
Later (Diedicke und Sydow, Annales Mycologici, Bd. v1, 
1908, p. 301) the examination of additional material showed 
that the spores were produced in pycnidia and Hapalosphaeria, 
a new genus of the Sphaeropsidales, was constituted for its 
reception. 
The fungus produces a growth on the Rubus resembling a 
witches’ broom. The infected flowers are recognisable in the 
bud by the enlargement of the sepals, the apices of one or more 
of these being elongated and sharply recurved. Numerous, 
small, rounded or conical pycnidia are produced in the outer 
wall of the anther which open on the surface. The pycnidia are 
light brown in colour, 50-80 in diam.; the wall consists of 
many layers of small thin-walled cells. The spores are hyaline, 
spherical, smooth, 3-5 in diam. and are budded off from 
elongated conical cells on the inner side of the wall. 
The Scottish specimens generally agree in structure with the 
above account, but no unusual growth was observed on the 
bush and no mycelium is present between the anthers; hyphae 
are however present in abundance in the anther walls and 
cavities. 
MELASMIA EMPETRI Magn. 
On the stem of Empetrum nigrum L., Creag na Caillich near 
Killin, Perthshire, altitude 1500 ft., Sept. 1919, and Peaks of 
the Castles, Arran, altitude 2500 ft., May 1920. 
In the specimens collected in the autumn the fructifications 
were unopened and the conidia immature; in those found in 
the spring the stomata were split longitudinally and the conidia 
projected slightly as a pinkish mass. Diseased plants are recog- 
nisable on account of the abnormally elongated twigs bearing 
smaller leaves than usual which become yellow early in autumn. 
Magnus, who discovered this species in the island of Wollin, 
Germany (Berichte d. d. bot. Ges. Bd. Iv, 1886, p. 104) supposed 
that it might be the conidial form of a species of Rhytisma and 
expected to find asci developed in over-wintered specimens but 
was unable to find spores of any kind on diseased plants in the 
spring. 
