472 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [JUNE 
I have not been able, as yet, to germinate the spores, hence no 
infection experiments have been performed. 
As far as I know, no smut has heretofore been reported on the rice 
plant in America. 
In 1896, Y. Takahashi described a new species of Tilletia (7. hor- 
rida) on the rice plant in Japan,’ as follows: 
Spore-masses pulverulent, black, produced within the ovary and remain- 
ing covered by the glumes. Spores globose,'irregularly rounded, or some- 
times broadly elliptical, the round ones 18.5-23u in diameter, and the 
elongated ones 22.5~—26 X 18-22 in size. 
Epispore deep olive-brown, opaque, thickly covered with conspicuous 
spines. The spines hyaline or slightly colored, pointed at the apex, irregu- 
larly polygonal at the base, more or less curved, 2.5—4,4 in height, and 1.5- 
2mapart at their free ends. Sporidia filiform or needle-shaped, curved in 
various ways, 10-2c in number and 38-53, in length. Aad. On Oryza sativa 
L. From Toky6 and Kyédto. 
By comparing the descriptions of 7. horrida Tak. and Z. corona 
Scrib., it appears that the two are identical; azreeing not only in 
their size, but in their other characters as well, except that attempts 
at germinating the spores of 7. corona have, as yet, given negative 
results. 
One other Tilletia, 7. Oryza Pat., has been reported on the rice 
plant.2 [t forms spores 3-5 in diameter. Brefeld has made a careful 
study of 7. Oryze Pat., and found it to belong, not to the Ustilaginezx, 
_but to the sclerotia-forming Ascomycetes, since it forms sclerotia 
inside of the rice grain.‘ 
I am indebted to Dr. A. C. True of Washington, to Director Wm. 
Trelease, and to Mr. J. B.S. Norton, of the Missouri Botanical Gar- 
dens, and to Professor F. S. Earle, of Auburn, Alabama, for kindly 
supplying me with references—ALEXANDER P. ANDERSON, Clemson 
College, S.C. 
* TAKAHASHI, Y. On Ustilago virens Cooke and a new species of Tilletia para- 
sitic on rice-plant. Todkyd Bot. Mag. 10:20. 1896. 
3 PATOUILLARD, Champignons extra européens. Bull. Soc. Myc. France 3:124- 
pl. ro. fig. 2. 1887. 
‘Bot. Centralblatt 65 :97. 1896. 
