146 BOTANICAL GAZETTE. [ June, 
great help. Begin with the group in which you are most interested, say Ure- 
dinexe. Look over the published lists and descriptions to which you have access; 
get an idea of how many species there are, what they grow on, what time of 
year they occur. Notice particularly some likely to appear soon, and look at 
specimens of them if possible. These will be impressed upon your mind and 
when you go out you will look sharply for any unusual appearance of that host. 
You will find a few species that are well known and these will be a nucleus. 
They are marked by certain appearances of the host. Similar appearances o 
other plants will be more easily seen and each new success will bring increased 
interest and increased ability. If you are not interested in other groups and 
know nothing about them, you will scarcely see any of their species. You may, 
however, look for all kinds, but your greatest success will be in the groups which 
you know best and in which you are most interested. As knowledge and expe- 
rience increases, new groups will be brought in, but the field is so large that it 
is bewildering to attempt all kinds at first—A. B. Seymour. 
The equipment necessary is a tin box, 8 by 12 inches, and 6 inches deep, 
with a tight fitting lid, a small portfolio (or an old book), and a pocket lens. 
Nearly all specimens will keep well for a day in the box, but the portfolio is 
useful in keeping leaves which cure quickly, and for the more careful preser- 
vation of rareties. 
ast of May or the first of June, depending upon the season, I go to a 
favorite valley about half a mile wide, with a creek running through it, well 
shaded by large trees. On the south side are low hills, covered with young 
trees, with occasional springs running down and forming small bogs in the val- 
ley. On the north are higher rocky hills, with here and there a deep gully 
worn by the waters from the land above, thickly overgrown by small shrubs. 
Walking along the hilis on the south my attention is attracted by some 
leaves of Anemone nemorosa, and A. acutiloba, which are smaller than their 
neighbors, and borne on longer petioles. An examination of the under surface 
of the former reveals on some the beautiful cups of Acidium punctatum, @ and 
on others the dark sori of Puccinia fusca; the thickened leaves of the latter are 
A. nemorosa is rewarded by the purple sin of phe i Anemones, the 
little scasaiegs 
Going pene the valley, I find a luxuriant growth of Podophyllum pel- 
tatum, infested with its “~— orange cluster-cup, cidium Podophylli, and a 
little later in the season, a similar locality furnishes Puccinia Podophylli. f 
edge of the valley, ae lovely Claytonia Virginica is blooming, and a shor 
search adds to my treasures Puccinia Marie-Wilsoni and its ecidium. gee 
ing down the valley, with a sharp look at every plant, I come to a mass of the 
ep 
, Fh 
rum 
Arisema triphyllum contributes Acidium Caladii, and a nranaenery visit 
gives me the uredo and teleutospores of Uromyces Caladii. A plant of Ranun- 
eulus abortivus, a little taller and more slender than it should be, shows the 
