﻿THE RAVENELIAS OF THE UNITED STATES AND 



MEXICO. 



William H. Long, J r, 



(with plates II AND III) 



The writer originally intended to include in this paper only 

 the Texan species, but as the study advanced it became evident 

 that many Mexican species would be found in Texas,probably all 

 of them when the fungal flora of the extreme southern and south- 

 western section of the state is collected and studied; while in 

 the eastern and northeastern counties the species of the southern 

 Atlantic states would probably be found ; so it was thought best 

 to include in the present paper all known Ravenelias from the 

 United States and Mexico. 



The genus seems to be mainly tropical and subtropical, only 

 two species being found above latitude sS"", viz., R. opaca and R. 

 epiphylla, the latter being the most widely distributed subtropical 

 species known, extending- as far north as New York, westward to 



the Mississippi, and southward to Florida. The known species 

 are distributed as follows: United States ii, Mexico 15, Central 

 and South America 21, West Indies i, South Africa 12, Ceylon 

 5j and Japan i. 



The Ravenelias are among the most natural and marked 

 groups of all the Uredineae. So far as known they are confined 

 entirely to the Leguminosae as to host, with two exceptions, viz., 

 R. appe7idiculata and R. pygmaea, found on Phyllanthus. Most of 

 the species on the Leguminosae are parasitic on the two sub- 

 orders Caesalplnieae and Mimoscae. 



The genus Ravenelia was founded by Berkeley, with R. indica 

 and R^ glandiilosa as its first species. At that time, and for some 

 years afterwards, the exact status of the genus was not known, 

 as the general morphology of the plant and the germination of 

 the teleutospores had not been studied. Later Parker' studied 



'On the morphology of Ravenelia glanduliformis, Proc. Amer. Acad. 22:205- 

 217. 1886. 



'9031 „x 



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