TORREYA 



Vol. 38 July-August, 1938 No. 4 



Rust Fungi in Norton, Massachusetts 

 Mabel A. Rice 



Wheaton College, Norton, Massachusetts, lies in level 

 country. Approaching by train from Boston one looks a regret- 

 ful farewell to Blue Hill whose dome rises above a base line of 

 swamp and wood. In compensation for this monotony the 

 homesick botanist from the Berkshire Hills, fishing the swampy 

 pools, finds a rich yield of pond scums; finally, she is almost 

 content as the fields and woods prove a happy hunting-ground 

 for rusts. These fungous parasites upon green plants are known 

 to the world generally only through the wheat rust; and known 

 there, perhaps, only as rusty, red or black spots on leaf and 

 stem whereby the yield of the wheat grain is reduced. It is the 

 seasons with over-wet harvests in which wheat rust especially 

 flourishes. In the level, much-watered environs of Wheaton 

 College a variety of rust parasites flourish.* 



A certain botanist (35) explains that rusts "are dear to the 

 botanical teacher because of their heterogeneously polymorphic 

 ontogeny." For this reason, or for others which I will not pause 

 to state, I have been pleased to find and to keep rusts as mem- 

 bers of the Norton plant community. I report my findings in 

 the list given below and proceed to add some words of introduc- 

 tion for those readers who would become acquainted with this 

 plant community. 



The list is in proper alphabetical order but I will take them 

 as we meet them. First — on the campus the hollyhocks harbor 

 a perennial rust. In a sheltered corner of a border against a 

 brick building one may gather orange-flecked leaves in every 

 month of the year. Even leaves dug from under a snow cover 

 show orange pimples: spore clusters which in the spring will 



* All of the rusts described as found near Norton are undoubtedly to be 

 found in most regions where the same hosts grow, so may be looked for in the 

 New York area. Editor. 



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