1895. ] Briefer Articles. 463 
forts, only partly opened. On the whole, the flower was a very credit- 
able specimen, and the novelty of seeing so fine a one in broad day- 
light was duly appreciated. In half an hour more the sun, which 
shone dimly at times, was beginning to tell uponit. I cut it off, placed 
it in water in a dark room, where it remained with little change until 
1:30 P. M., when it rapidly withered. Its companion was a little less 
ambitious in every respect, and was in its prime at 11:30 A. M., but be- 
ing allowed to remain on the plant, proved more transient. 
Other buds which reached maturity when the weather was warm 
opened in the usual manner.—BeEssiE L. Putnam, Harmonsburg, Penn. 
Ustilago Reiliana on corn.—Ustilago Reiliana Kihn was discovered 
several years ago at this place on sorghum and was first reported from 
here for America. Since then it has occurred in abundance in sor- 
ghum fields in other parts of the United States. Last year and this 
year it has been common in the experimental sorghum fields of this 
college; but up to this time has not been reported, to my knowledge, 
on Zea Mays from this continent, though found on that plant in Eu- 
rope. The first stalk of corn affected by this smut was found in July 
of this year, and since then I have seen it quite frequent in fields about 
Manhattan. The smut usually appears first in the male inflorescence 
of the host plant, sometimes converting the whole upper part of the 
plant into a mass of smut, sometimes smutting only some of the flow- 
ers which are usually in this case enlarged and deformed. The whole 
plant is much dwarfed by the parasite, scarcely attaining more than 
half the normal size. The ears are small, and when not filled with 
the smut they are deformed, often very curiously, and scarcely ever 
develop any perfect grains. The rudimentary ears at each node from 
the base of the plant upward are nearly always affected. Ustilago 
Reiliana might be mistaken by the ordinary observer for U. maydts 
the usual corn smut, and is perhaps more common than generally sup. 
posed; but they are easily distinguished when seen together. U. Rez/t- 
ana has a more granular appearance, as if mixed with meal, due to 
the large colorless cells which accompany the spores. The fibers 
which remain in the smut mass are much larger than in U. maydis. 
The microscopic characters will of course distinguish the two species. 
A difference of greater economic importance lies in the fact that 
U. Reiliana attacks the whole plant, almost destroying it, while U. 
maydts is more local, and plants affected with it usually appear unin- 
Jured except at the point attacked by the parasite.—J. B. S. Norton, 
Kansas State Agricultural College, Manhattan. 
