, j 2 Puccini a. 



large numbers from the branches like so many fruits, and the trees are 

 either dying or dead. (See Frontispiece.) 



The dark chocolate-brown spore-masses are quite powdery, and each spore 

 has prominent ribs running from base to apex, so that it is easily known 

 from being fluted. In fact, the appearance closely resembles trie markings 



the eggs of some butterflies, and no doubt the purpose is the same, to 

 strengthen the membrane which is already relatively thick, and prevent 

 the spore collapsing when dry conditions prevail. Occasionally a spore 

 has been found germinating in situ, and they germinated freely in water 

 in twenty hours. 



What is said to be the same fungus has been found on Albizzia montana 

 Benth., in Java, and it would be interesting to know if it occurred on any 

 indigenous species of this genus in New South Wales, Queensland or West 

 Australia. 



On A. implexa at Myrniong there were numerous galls, and I found one 

 at the end of a branch in July somewhat of a leg-of-mutton shape and 

 weighing about 3 Ibs. (PI. XLL). Witches' brooms of various sizes also 

 occurred on A. implexa, caused by this rust, and one of the largest 

 measured 45 inches in circumference (PL XLIL). 



(Plates XXIL, Figs. 190-195; XXIIL, Fig. 206; XXXIY.; XXXV.; 

 XLL; XLIL, Fig. 305.) 



PUCCINIA Pers. 



This genus includes more than half of all the Australian Rusts, and is 

 important, not only on account of its numbers, but from its appearing on so 

 many of our cultivated crops. It occurs on all the cereals and many of the 

 grasses, on celery and chicory, on fruit trees, such as peach and plum, and 

 many garden favorites are attacked by it, such as chrysanthemum and corn- 

 flower, hollyhock, marigold and daisy ; even a parasite, such as the native 

 mistletoe, is subject to it. The two-celled teleutospore is easily recognized 

 and distinguished from the unicellular uredospore. All the spore-forms may 

 be present on the one plant, as in P. hederaceae on the native violets ( Viola 

 hederacea and V. betonicifolia), or reduced to the teleutospore alone, as in 

 P. malvacearum. There may also be heteroecious forms, such as P. caricis, 

 with the aecidial stage on the nettle (Urtica). The teleutospore, although 

 normally two celled, and with a horizontal septum, is sometimes very vari- 

 able in these respects. It may not only, occasionally, be one celled, but in 

 P. dichondrae, for instance, it may be 3-4 celled, and it may be vertically, 

 obliquely, or even muriformly divided by the septa. The most celebrated of 

 all the species is P. graminis, or wheat rust, which seems to have lost the 

 power here of infecting the barberry, for although germinating promycelial 

 spores have been used upon specially imported barberries and rusty wheat 

 grown around the latter, still no aecidia have been produced. 



Mesospores are common and paraphyses may be present in both the uredo 

 and teleuto-layer. 



General characters. Spermogonia when present, mostly epiphyllous, 

 minute, sub-globose or flask-shaped, honey-coloured. 



Spermatia very minute, globose or ellipsoid, hyaline. 



Aecidia when present at first globose and closed, then cup-shaped and 

 open, or elongated and cylindrical, with margins generally everted. 



Aecidiospores originating in serial order and soon free, globose, sub- 

 globose or angular, hyaline, yellowish or orange. 





