94 



THE AMERICAN MONTHLY 



[May,^ 



11 



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 o 



Cedar Apples of the United 

 States. — The Anniversary Memoirs 

 of the Boston Society of Natural 

 History, just issued, contain a con- 

 tribution from Prof. W. G. Farlow on 

 " The Gymnosporangia or Cedar- 

 apples of the United States." 



The Gymnosporangia constitute a 

 genus of parasitic fungi belonging to 

 the order Uridineae, or rusts, among 

 which the names Fuccinia, Uredo and 

 ^cidium are familiar. At the present 

 time, most mycologists regard the 

 forms which received these generic 

 names in the past, as having a genetic 

 connection with each other. Thus, 

 the name Puccinia graminis was 

 originally given to the blight on grass 

 which appears as dark colored spores, 

 formed of two, more or less conical 

 cells, united at their bases, and at- 

 tached to a mycelium. It is now 

 considered that this so-called teleuto- 

 spore condition represents only one 

 stage in -the growth of the fungus. 

 These spores are produced in the 

 autumn. The following spring they 

 germinate ; each cell gives off one, 

 two or three delicate, short filaments 



which become divided by transverse 

 septa into a number of cells. The 

 upper cell grows out laterally, and 

 bears a small, ovoid cell which falls 

 from its attachment. The filaments 

 are known as promycelium, and the 

 ovoid cells are called sporidia. The 

 sporidia only germinate on the bar- 

 berry, where they produce the well- 

 known y^cidium berberidis or cluster- 

 cup, which is no longer regarded as a 

 distinct plant, but merely as a stage 

 in the growth of P. graminis — the 

 hymeniferus or aecidial condition. 

 The gecidium is produced in May or 

 June. The secidia produ(ie spores 

 which germinate upon different 

 grasses and form the uredo stage of 

 P. graminis which formerly was des- 

 ignated as Uredo linearis. ' The 

 spores from the uredo condition 

 (called stylo-spores) germinate, andfll 

 in the autumn produce the teleutO'^' 

 spores already described. We have 

 thus briefly reviewed the life-cycle of 

 one species of Picccinia, as given by 

 Prof. Farlow, but it should be borne 

 in mind, that while it is not improba- 

 ble that the other species will be found 

 to assume similar stages in the course 

 of their growth, it has not yet been 

 demonstrated that they do. 



In the genus Gymnosporangium^ 

 which differs from Puccinia in its 

 gelatinous nature, only secidia and 

 teleutospores are known. The teleu- 

 tospores are usually two-celled, and 

 are borne on long, hyaline stalks, 

 imbedded in masses of jelly which 

 swell in moist weather into orange 

 colored masses, by many supposed to 

 be the flowers of the cedar-trees. 

 Oersted, De Bary, Cornu and others 

 have connected this gelatinous, teleu- 

 tospore-stage with certain forms of 

 cluster-cups, generically known as 

 Roestelia, found on leaves of different 

 Pomese — thorns, apples, pears, etc. 

 Nevertheless, Prof. Farlow's investi- 

 gations have failed to establish any 

 such connection between the Gym- 

 nosporangii and the Roestelia of this 

 country. They tend, rather, to cast 

 some doubt upon the relationship 



