1889.] BOTANICAL GAZETTE, 153 



onospora. From the fact that Rronospora australis Spegaz. grows upon 

 Sicyos angulatus, another member of the cucumber family of plants, one 

 naturally turned to that as given in Ellis' N. A. F. No. 1416 for comparison 

 and verification. The conidiophores and conidia are surprisingly differ- 

 ent from the Sicyos species, and the patches of mildew as a natural con- 

 sequence have a different aspect. Attempts have been made to germin- 

 ate the conidia, but as yet without success. The oospores have not been 

 met with. 



This note is introduced here that students of this destructive group 

 may be upon the watch for the cucumber mildew and its present range 

 determined. From the nature of the fungus, and the plant upon which 

 it is found, it is to be feared that market gardeners may have in the cu- 

 cumber mildew a serious enemy, especially should it spread to squashes, 

 melons and other members of the Cucurbitaceae, and attack the seedling 

 plants.— Byron D. Halsted, Rutgers College, New Brunswick, N. J. 



Lactuca Scariola L. 



1885- 



in the corner of an abandoned vegetable garden, and in the adjacent 

 street, near my home on 71st street. It has since spread along the street 

 for a couple of blocks, and is well established. I have not seen it else- 

 where in the vicinity of Chicago.— E. J. Hill, Engleicood, 111. 



Aster ptarinieoides, var. lutescens Gray— In the Botanical Gazette 

 for 1883 (Vol. VIII, p. 238), an article by me appeared entitled "Aster or 

 Solidago." It was based on a study of some plants found at Englewood 

 nearly like A. ptarmicoides, but with pale yellow flowers. The question 

 was raised whether it might not be a hybrid. This supposition proved 

 to be wrong, for, specimens being sent subsequently to Dr. Gray, he 

 identified it as given above, and it was thus published in the "Synoptical 

 Flora." The article closed with the statement that the plant might throw 

 some light on the Aster lutescens of "Torrey and Gray's Flora of North 

 America," which Douglas collected in British America, near the Assim- 

 boine river, as it seemed quite near that species. This conjecture, it 



seems, turned out to be true. 



But the habitat here is at a great distance from that, and I do not 

 learn that it has been found elsewhere in the United States. Macoun 

 (Catalogue of Canadian Plants), under A. lutescens Torr. & Gray, states 

 that it grows by the Assiniboine river, on the authority of Douglas, and 

 on his own authority says : " west of the Touchwood Hills, 18! 2, not de- 

 tected since." Gray, in the " Synoptical Flora," says, " Bed nver^ But 

 the Assiniboine and Red rivers unite in Manitoba a little before flowing 

 into Winnepeg Lake, so that the region is essentially the ime. Ihe 

 Touchwood hills are about 500 miles farther west, near the upper waters 

 of the Assiniboine. I find no mention of its occurrence in other places. 

 In hi - Catalogue of the Flora of Minnesota " (1884), Warren Upham, re- 

 ferring to its presence in Northern Illinois, says: " it will probably be 

 found in Minnesota." 



