3 86 NATURAL HISTORY BULLETIN. 



2±a. On Sporobolits crvptandrus (Torr.) Gr. Rock port, Kans., Bartholo- 



me-tV. 



Orig. Desc. "Puccinia cryptandri. On leaves of Sporoholus cryptandrus. 

 Sept. 16, 1896 (No. 2264). Epiphvllous, uredosori linear, 1 mni-i cm 

 long, narrow, bordered by tbe longitudinally cleft epidermis, light 

 brown. Uredospores globose, 20-24 fi diam., or elliptical, 25-30X20-23// 

 yellowish brown, faintly aculeate. Teleutospores in sori like those of 

 the uredospores, but mostly shorter, oblong-elliptical, yellow-brown, 

 constricted at the septum, 35-45X20-230. Epispore smooth, scarcely or 

 only slightly thickened at the apex. Pedicels as long or longer than 

 the spores. II. Very abundant wherever the host occurs, from July 

 to October. III. Very rare. Differs from Puccinia sporoboli Arth*. 

 principally in its longer and darker colored uredosori. In that species 

 they are a bright orange." 



The teleutospores of this species are much like those of the 

 rust on Sporoholus asfter, but the teleutosori are not so promi- 

 nent and the habit of the uredosori is widely different, as well 

 as the form and color of the uredospores. 



Collections made in Nebraska and Kansas show a scarcity 

 of teleutospores, and this may be true of the whole region 

 east of the Rocky Mountains. Specimens in the herbarium 

 of the Division of Veg. Physiology and Pathology at Wash- 

 ington, D. C, collected at Canon City, Colo., by S. M. Tracy 

 (Aug. 23, 1887), and at Willis, Madison Co.. Mont., by F. W. 

 Anderson (Oct.. 1888), however, show luxuriant develop- 

 ment of teleutospores, with only a few scattering uredospores, 

 but with enough of the latter to make the determination of 

 the species unquestionable. A probable explanation of this 

 diversity of habit is that the aecidium does not occur upon the 

 plains east of the mountains, but is abundant westward. 



The history of this species is a line illustration of the inabil- 

 ity of collectors to recognize some species from the teleuto- 

 spores alone; for it was ten years after good material of the 

 teleutosporic stage was under observation, and not until the 

 uredoformwas forcedupon theirattention,that it was separated, 

 and then almost wholly upon the evidence of the uredospores. 



25. Puccinia sporoboli Arth. (1884. Bull. Iowa Agric. 

 Coll. : 159.) 



*The species intended is Puccinia vilfae A. & H. 



