Answers to Queries, and Queries. 491 



opening the sporidia, or minute bodies which contain the spondee, or 

 seeds, make their escape. 



This curious little parasite is generally very regularly dispersed over the 

 inferior surface of the leaves, giving them a pale and sickly appearance, and 

 for the most part rendering the plants attacked by it barren of flowers. 

 I do not find that it has been noticed in any work on British plants, but it 

 is described by M. De Candolle in the Encyclopedic Botanique, vol.viii. 

 p. 235., and in the Flore Francoise, vol.vi. p. 90., under the name of iEcidium 

 quadrifidum. Professor Link has also described it in his continuation of 

 Willdenow's Species Plantarum, vol. vi. part ii. p. 65., by the name of Caeoma 

 quadrifidum. 



The common wood anemone, Anemone nemorosa, in the neighbourhood 

 of Oxford, is often attacked by the iEcidium leucospermum of De Can- 

 dolle, M. anemones of Persoon and Relhan. This differs from M. quadri- 

 fidum in being smaller, of a whiter colour, and in the apex opening into a 

 greater number of lobes; it is scattered very regularly over the under side of 

 the leaves, and such leaves as are affected by it may be distinguished, even 

 at a considerable distance, by their growing much higher than those which 

 are free from its attacks. I have sometimes found it on the involucrum and 

 corolla, as well as on the leaves, but it is very seldom that plants which are 

 affected by it produce flowers. A history and description of this epiphyl- 

 lous fungus, by Dr. Pulteney, may be seen in the second volume of the 

 Transactions of the Linnean Society of London, p. 505 — 312. 



Another parasite, equally common on the wood anemone here, is the 

 Puccinia miemones of Persoon, iEcidium fuscum of Sibthorp. This, also, 

 grows on the under side of the leaves, giving them somewhat the appear- 

 ance of a species of fern in fructification ; and, as such, a leaf of the ane- 

 mone, with the Puccinia upon it, was figured by Dillenius in the third edition 

 of Ray's Synopsis, t. 3. f. 1 . It is there, at page 124., said to have been 

 gathered by the Conjuror of Chalgrave, whence it has been called the Con- 

 jurer of Chalgrave's Fern. Some botanists appear to have considered this 

 and the zEcidium leucospermum as the same, but they are very distinct, 

 and may be readily distinguished from each other, even by the naked eye, 

 the iEcidium being white, and furnished with a peridium ; the Puccinia of 

 a reddish brown colour, and without a true peridium, what sometimes 

 appears to be such being only the epidermis of the leaf, which often forms 

 a border round the base of each mass of sporidia. 



Some authors have quoted the description in Ray's Synopsis, ed. 3. p. 124. 

 t. 5. f. 1., as a synonym to iEcidium leucospermum, but that it belongs to 

 the present species of Puccinia, I have been able to ascertain from an inspec- 

 tion of the original specimen, which is still preserved in Bobart's Herbarium. 

 Dr. Hill, in his British Herbal, p. 12., has blamed Dillenius for following 

 Bobart in considering this specimen as a species of fern, but the Doctor 

 himself was certainly under a greater mistake than either of those distin- 

 guished botanists, when he described the round dots, as he called them, on 

 the leaves of the anemone, as the eggs of an insect. 



I have sent with this specimens of each of the fungi mentioned above for 

 your inspection, accompanied by all the synonyms I have been able to collect, 

 that I believe to belong to each of them, and I trust they will be found to 

 be correct. I am, Sir, &c. — William Baxter. Botanie Garden, Oxford, 

 January 15. 1828. 



We shall be happy to hear frequently from Mr. Baxter. The specimens 

 of anemone leaves, with fungi on them, which he has sent, are left with 

 the publishers, and addressed to A. B. of Warwick, who will be so good as 

 send for them, and we hope he will favour us with his opinion in respect 



