MiCROSPHAERA 165 



4— 13, more rarely 13—26, ovate or ovate-oblong, with a short 

 stalk, 48-66 X 26-35 /i; spores usually 4, sometimes 3, 5 or 6, 

 19-21 X 10-12 fi. 



. Hosts, — Astragalus adsurgcns. A, Coopcri^ A. Dni)ni)iondiij A. 



Mortoni^ Colutca arborcsccns^ C, cnicnta^ Euphorbia corollata^ E, 



hypcricifolia^ E. viargiuata (60) (386), E, Prcslii. 



Distribution. — Asia : Turkestan. 



North America : United States — New York, North and South 

 Carolina, Michigan, Alabama (12), Illinois, Mississippi, Wisconsin, 



Missouri {z^'^), Iowa, Kansas, Montana, Colorado. 



A very interesting and marked species in the contorted angu- 

 larly-bent appendages, which occur almost constantly in all ex- 

 amples, and when present, are sufficient, taken in conjunction with 

 the flexuose branching of the apex, to identify the species at 

 once. Where the appendages are not thus characterized, e, g.^ as 

 in the form on Colutca (referred to below), the best distinctive 

 character is found in the very vaguely and widely branched apex 

 of the appendages, the branches of which are Irregularly ar- 

 ranged, very flexuose, or variously contorted and twisted. 



Up to the present time, 3L eupJiorbiae has been considered as 

 occurring only on species of Euphorbia, but I ha\^e no hesitation 

 in referring to this species American plants occurring on Astragalus 

 adsurgcns, A, Coopcri, A, Druinmondii^ and A. 3fortoni. The 

 fungus on A. Coopcri has been recorded by Peck [60) (91) (280) 

 as '' M. holoscricca Lev." [M astragali^^ ; that on A, adsurgcns I 

 have found labelled '' M. Ravcudii'' in herbaria, and that on A. 

 Mortoui named Erysiphe coniuiunis. All the specimens on the 

 species of Astragalus mentioned above have the same peculiarly 

 contorted appendages and irregular branching of the apex as occur 

 in examples of }L cuphorbiac on species of Euphorbia. 



Komarov (206) has recently described a species of Micro- 

 sphacra, occurring on Astragalus and Colutca in Turkestan, under 

 the name of M. colutcac, with the following diagnosis: '' Bifrons, 

 mycelio arachnoideo, persistente, bene evoluto. Conceptaculis 

 minutis subglobosis. Appendiculae graciles, conceptaculo multo 

 longiores, unclnatae, ramulis ultimis apice turgidis incurvis. Asci 

 8 subovoidel brevi pedunculati. Sporae in quovis asco 2-6, 

 saepius 3^4. Conidiis cylindrico-ovoideis. Conceptacula adpo «; 



