57 



what zigzag, angled, stout, villose-pubescent, glandless ; prickles 

 not numerous, small, stout, and hooked. Leaves trifoliolate, the 

 upper unifoliolate, thickish, of moderate size or small, coarsely 

 dentate, very velvety on the lower surface and nearly smooth 

 above; leaflets broad; unifoliolate leaves very broad and often 

 slightly incised or deeply 2-incised. Inflorescence on a short 

 axis, cymose or cymose-corymbose ; pedicels very pubescent, 

 with rarely a few stalked glands, 4 to 8 set at a small angle or 

 erect, and an erect one from the axil of each lower leaf, those 

 composing the cyme subtended by broad unifololiate leaves or 

 some without subtending leaves. Flowers not seen. Fruit ripen- 

 ing before the middle of July, nearly globose, about 0.5 inch in 

 diameter. Very productive, flavor fine. Ripe two weeks earlier 

 than R. A)idr£wsia7ius. 



This is a very abundant plant in the neighborhood of Phila- 

 delphia and Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and quite as abundant 

 around Washington, D. C. 



This species is closely related to R. frondosiis Bigelow and 

 needs careful study. It is evidently wide-spread. There was no 

 specimen of it in the National Herbarium at Washington. There 

 was, however, one specimen at the Academy of Sciences of 

 Philadelphia, collected recently by Dr. Ida A. Keller. 

 Westminster, Vermont. 



MELANOSPORA PARASITICA 



By Guy \Yest Wilson 



This interesting species was collected in fair abundance in the 

 vicinity of Van Cortlandt Park, New York City, the present season 

 on Isariafari7iosa (Dicks.) Fries, the conidial stage of Cordyceps 

 militaris (L.) Sacc. Saccardo's Sylloge Fungorum contains the 

 descriptions of two species of ascomycetous fungi which occur 

 upon this host. A comparison of the descriptions led to the 

 discovery that the characters given are insufficient to warrant the 

 separation of these species. The first mention of this fungus 

 is by L. Tulasne who described it as Sphaeronema parasitica * 

 on Isaria crassa from France. A few years later the brothers 



* Ann. Sci. Nat. IV. 8 : 40, note 2. 1857. 



