Sorosporium. 



177 



The sterile hypliae are hyaline, closely septate, and the cells are either 

 cubical or rounded. 



Germination. — Spores were taken from Panicum hicolor nine months after 

 being collected, and floated on water in a covered petri-dish exposed to the 

 sun. After 41 hours they were germinating luxuriantly. The spore puts 

 forth a promycelium which at first may be comparatively short and without 

 septa (13 ft long) and yet give rise to a terminal conidium nearly as Ion"- as 

 itself (10 ft). But generally the promycelia are septate, producing lat'eral 

 as well as terminal conidia. Occasionally two promycelia may be produced 

 from the same spore on opposite sides and branching may occur at the very 

 base of the promycelium. Buckle or knee-joints are also met with. The 

 conidia are elongated ellipsoid and vary in size. The apical conidium mav 

 elongate considerably, up to a length of 30 ft, becoming spindle-shaped and 

 tri-septate, and two may be produced one after the other. 



The spore may also give rise to an elongated slender promycelium in which 

 the protoplasm collects at the end, and the terminal segment mav become 

 detached and produce slender filaments at either end. The promycelia may 

 thus either give rise to ordinary conidia or segments may be detached, and in 

 this way the smut is distributed. 



Massee has determined a new species, Ustilago confusa on Panicum rxira- 

 doxum K. Br., from Victoria, in which the spores have a tinge of violet by 

 transmitted light, but there is not the slightest trace of it here, and since I 

 am informed that there is no available material at Kew, it cannot be decided 

 whether it is a Sorosporium or not. 



There is a general resemblance to S. sijntherismae (Pk.) Farl., but I have 

 examined the specimen in Sydow's Ust. Exs. No. 41 on Panicum proliferum 

 Lam., from Ohio, and the spores are darker in colour and the echinulation is 

 much more pronounced. 



(Plates XL., LVI.) 



Antliisliria. 

 33. Sorosporium enteromorphum McAlp. 



Ustilago entewmorpha McAlpine, Aor. Gaz.. N S W Xll 

 p. 154 (1896). "^ ' ■' 



Sori in florets, enclosed in a somewhat intestine-shaped gray membrane, 

 at length brownish and decaying to allow the escape of the spores ; 

 spore-mass with membrane elongated and puckered, and sometimes 

 coiled upon itself, half-an-inch to fully an inch long. 



Spore-balls irregular, oblong to sul)globose or elonoated, 20-10 11 

 diam. or 30-60 /< in length. 



Spores globose to oval, olivaceous, loosely adherent, 5-8 // diam. 

 or 6-10 X 4-7 ft ; epispore thin, brown, very finely echinulate. 

 On Anthistiria ciliata L. f.— Kangaroo Grass. 



Victoria— Near Melbourne, Dec, 1892 (Rol)ins()n). Dandenontr 



Ranges, Jan., 1910 (C. French, jun.). '^ 



(Plates XVL, XL.) 



