159 



a native, as it is common in southwestern Pennsylvania, eastern 

 Ohio and northern West Virginia. That it has been cultivated 

 in the region is true, for Mr. Medsger writes to me : " My 

 father informs me that when he was a boy nearly sixty years 

 ago, this strawberry was about the only form cultivated in the 

 gardens. At that time perhaps most of the strawberries now 

 cultivated were unknown." This, however, does not solve the 

 mystery of its origin, and any information in this line will be 

 highly appreciated. The true Fragaria vesca L. is not found 

 wild in this country and is very rare even as an escaped plant, 

 probably because it is seldom cultivated. Its American repre- 

 sentative, F. Americana, has nothing to do with the white- 

 fruited strawberry. The fruit of the former has a long neck 

 devoid of achenes, which is not the case with the latter. Mr. 

 Medsger has sent me fine fruits of the Pennsylvania plant and 

 these are essentially those of F. vesca. The achenes in the ma- 

 ture fruit are wholly superficial, the receptacle not even bearing 

 a trace of being pitted, and the sepals are spreading. The fruits 

 are most of them almost spherical, some only slightly elongated. 

 New York Botanical Garden. 



SHORTER NOTES 



A much-named Fungus. — I am obliged to Mr. Shear * for 

 calling my attention to the error made by Professor Tracy and 

 myself in overlooking Cooke and Ellis' Fnsicladinm fasciciilatnm 

 when we proposed the name Scolecotrichum ettphorbiae for a 

 commonly occurring fungus on different species of Ettphorbia. As 

 Mr. Shear points out there can be no question of the identity of 

 the two and the specific name given by us must drop into 

 synonymy. Unfortunately, however, other errors must be ac- 

 knowledged. In Miildeubcrgia, I : 16. Au. 1901, I proposed 

 the new genus Cercosporidium founded on this species as the 

 type. A further examination of this material and of the numer- 

 ous European specimens of Passalora bacilligera (Mont. & Fr.) 



*Bull. Torrey Club, 29 : 449. Jl. 1902. 



