131 
OBSERVATIONS ON PUCCINIA MIRABILISSIMA. 
By Wauter C. BraspDate. 
Under the name of Puccinia mirabilissima Peck deseribed 
in the Botanical Gazette, Vol. 6, page 226, the uredo- and 
teleutospore stages of a species of Puccinia found in Utah 
on the leaves of Berberis repens, and in a subsequent volume 
of that Journal (Vol. 13, page 126) Messrs. Tracy and 
Galloway reported the supposed discovery of its scidial 
stage. The fungus has since been reported from Montana 
by Kelsey, from Colorado by Baker (Fungi Columbiani, No. 
186), and from the Sierra Nevada Mountains by Harkness 
(Fungi Europsxi, No. 3619), in all cases on the same host- 
lant. I have also found it on this host quite widely 
distributed throughout the central portion of the Sierra 
Nevadas, and in a single locality near Berkeley on Berberis 
pinnata. Its many peculiar characters have induced me to 
undertake a study of some of the important points in its life- 
history and I would here present such facts as I have been 
able to determine. 
In the vicinity of Berkeley the uredo- and teleutospores are 
to be found throughout the year but are produced in greatest 
abundance during two cycles of development, one during the 
month of November or December and immediately following 
the early winter rains, and the other during the months of 
April and May. The spores of both stages occur in the same 
sorus on bright reddish spots on the under surface of the 
leaves; the percentage of teleutospores increasing somewhat 
with the age of the sorus. 
The uredospores vary from obovate to pyriform, are 
delicately rugose and are borne on colorless pedicels, to which 
they are attached by a distinct articulation and from which 
they separate only at maturity. Each spore contains from 
two to foar equatorially arranged germ-pores. The average 
of the measurements for ten normally developed spores was 
22x26.5u. 
Eryraga, Vol. III., No. 9 [3 September, 1895]. 
