9 g Uromyces Polygonaceae. 



POLYGONACEAE. 



Muehlenbeckia. 



11). Uromyces politus (Berk.) Me Alp. 



Berkeley, Linn. Journ. XIII., p. 174 (1872). 



Berkeley and Broome, Linn. Trans. II., p. 67 (1883). 



Cooke, Handb. Austr. Fung., p. 342 (1892). 



Sacc. Syll. VII., p. 833 (1888). 



Roestelia polita Berk. 



I. Aecidia on dark- purplish, elongated patches, generally arranged in 

 lines which may be parallel, bursting through epidermis, bright 

 orange, becoming ivory- coloured with age, cylindrical to slightly 

 compressed, straight, averaging 1| mm. high; pseudoperidia 

 polished, smooth, with white, narrow, toothed margin ; peridial 

 cells oblong to angular, with striated margin, 32-35 p long. 



Aecidiospores ochraceous, variable in size and shape, generally 

 ellipsoid to ovoid or oblong, finely echinulate, 24-30x19-22^. 



III. Teleutosori on the same discoloured area as the aecidia and 

 associated with or distinct from them, solitary or confluent, 

 brownish to blackish, bullate, elongated to oval, surrounded by the 

 raised and ruptured epidermis, compact, 1-2 mm. long. 



Teleutospores yellowish-brown, smooth, ellipsoid to oblong,, 

 rounded or pointed and apiculate at apex, thickened (6-8 ^u), 

 occasionally two-celled, variable in size, 28-40 x 20-25 p, average 

 32 X 24 p ; pedicel hyaline, persistent, elongated up to 150 p. 



On stems and branches of Muehlenbeckia cunninghami, F.v.M. 



New South Wales Pamamero Lake, Nov., 1860 (Berkeley 2 ). 

 Victoria Murray River, Koondrook, Nov., 1905 (C. French, jr.) 



This species differs from U. polygoni in the projecting Roestelia-like 

 aecidia, and in the larger teleutospores with elongated pedicels. Several two- 

 celled teleutospores occurred, oblong, constricted at septum, upper cell with 

 apiculate apex, thickened, and more deeply coloured than lower, which is 

 sometimes colourless, size that of the largest ordinary teleutospores. The 

 somewhat elongated aecidia, in the absence of any other stage, led Berkeley 

 to regard this as a species of Roestelia, but the finding of specimens by Mr. 

 C. French, jr., with teleutospores in addition, showed it to be one of tl 

 Uromyces. 



Berkeley 2 first recorded the aecidial stage of this species on Muehlenbeckia 

 cunninghami in the Journal of the Linnean Society XIII., 174 (1872), 

 and at the same time Cronartium asdepiadeum was noted on Jacksonia 

 scoparia from the Darling Downs, Queensland. 



Then just ten years later, in the transactions of the same society for 1882, 

 1. 67, R. polita is recorded on the latter plant from Brisbane (Berkeley and 



I Iroome 2 ), and it was rather peculiar, to say the least of it, that the same 

 species of Roestelia, or even a Roestelia at all, should occur on plants so 

 widely separated in a botanical sense as Muehlenbeckia (Polygonaceae) and 

 Jacksonia (Leguminosae). At the end of his description Berkeley remarks 



II The plant is identical with a specimen in the Kew Herbarium, and is. 

 growing on the same plant, Jacksonia scoparia R. Br." 



However, on examining the specimens on which this determination was 

 based, it became evident how the error had arisen. Fortunately I have the 

 specimen of Jacksonia scoparia from the National Herbarium, Melbourne, on 





