TILLETIA 345 



CINTRACTIA 



This genus differs from Ustilago only in the spores adhering 

 loosely in clusters when mature. 



In reality not a good genus. 



Cintractia patagonica (Cke. and Mass.) was the name given 

 to a fungus received at Kew many years ago, parasitic on 

 Bromus unioloides and Festuca bromoides from Patagonia and 

 Bahia Blanca. Some time ago an English traveller in South 

 America observed that Bromus unioloides was grown mixed 

 with lucerne for fodder. Seed of the Bromus was brought 

 home, sown, and in due course produced not only fruit, but 

 also its parasite, the Cintractia. It will be interesting to 

 know whether host, or parasite, or both, can establish them- 

 selves in this country. There are plenty of native species of 

 Bromus and Festuca to select from. 



This is significant in connection with the importation of 

 parasite along with host from one country to another. 



Massee, Gard. Chron.,Jan. 3, p. 14 (1903). 



TILLETIA (TuL.) 



Spores isolated, formed by the swelling of the tips of fertile 

 hyphae, forming a powdery mass at maturity ; promycelium 

 bearing a terminal cluster of elongated, cylindric-fusiform, 

 secondary spores, which after conjugating in pairs in situ, 

 either give origin to a curved sporidium or emit a delicate 

 germ-tube. 



Stinking smut of wheat (Tilletia tritici, Winter, =Tilletia 

 caries, Tul.) often proves very destructive to the wheat crop ; 

 the plant is infected in the seedling condition, the fungus 

 growing up in the tissues of the host without any external 

 evidence of its existence, except imparting a deeper tinge of 

 green to the leaves, until the wheat is in flower, when the 

 rigid erect ear and spreading florets and glumes betray the 

 presence of the parasite. The spores are formed in the grain 

 or ovary, and, as a rule, every grain in the ear is diseased. 

 When an infected grain is crushed, the powdery blackish-olive 

 mass of spores possesses a very strong smell, somewhat 

 resembling stinking fish, especially when moistened. 



