. BRIEFER ARTICLES. 
Relationship of Coma nitens and Puccinia Peckiana.—Ceoma inter- 
stitiale Schl., or as it 1s better known, Ceoma nitens Schw., has been re- 
garded by different botanists as the probable zcidio-stage of several 
species of Uredinee. Dr. Burrill was the first to suggest that it might 
be an earlier stage of Puccinia Peckiana Howe. It was from this sug- 
gestion that during the past three years a careful study of these two 
forms was made, the results being published in bulletin no. 29 of the 
Illinois Agricultural Experiment Station. Although not successful 
in a preliminary attempt to produce the Puccinia from the Caeoma 
by artificial infection, there was sufficient evidence gathered to con- 
clude that the two were only stages of one fungus. After having writ- 
ten this bulletin, but before publication, anarticle by Tranzschel' was 
received, in which he gave an account of a successful experiment 
where he produced Puccinia Peckiana by sowing spores of Caoma ni- 
tens on young shoots of Rudus saxatilis. 
Last spring infetion experiments were again undertaken by my- 
self with more satisfactory results. Early in the winter underground 
parts of Rudus villosus and Rubus occidentalis were removed from the 
Caeoma or the Puccinia. In the spring the plants started to grow 
fairly well, and are yet alive. On June gth fresh spores of Caeoma nl- 
tens were placed on the young leaves of both a blackberry and a raSp- 
berry, and on June 14th two more raspberries and another blackberry 
were likewise treated. In each case spores from a corresponding plant 
were used, save in one of the latter raspberries where spores from 4 
blackberry were used. Besides the foregoing plants several were kept 
free from spores to serve as checks. On July 26th, forty-seven days 
after sowing spores, mature sori of Puccinia Peckiana were found on one 
of the blackberries, and a few days later, on the other also. In Tranz- 
schel’s experiment but twenty-four days intervened between the sow- 
ing of spores and the finding of teleuto-sori. The infection while 
not abundant was quite apparent on several leaves. No sori appeared 
on the three test raspberries or on the checks. As raspberries are 
much better protected by hairs on the lower surface of their leaves, 
infection of such plants is no doubt much harder to accomplish than 
that of the blackberry. The time between sowing and apparent 
1Hedwigia 32; 257. 1893. 
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