1915] CURRENT LITERATURE 81 
versity of California. Although this paper deals primarily with taxonomic 
entomology, it contains many good records of American cecidia.—MEL. T. 
Cytology of the Uredineae.—FromME” described the processes taking 
place in the formation of spores of the flax rust, Melampsora Lini (Pers.) Desm., 
thereby adding another rust to those whose life histories are fully known. 
Interest in these forms centers largely in the aecidium. The sequence of events 
here is essentially like that occurring in aecidia of the Caeoma type, and differs 
only in the formation of two sterile cells above each gamete instead of one. 
The gametes fuse laterally in pairs, but occasionally irregularities apparently 
occur, since basal cells with three or more nuclei are found; however, the mode 
of origin of these cells was not observed. The spermatiophores also differ 
from the usual form. They are divided into a number of cells, from each of 
which a branch bearing a spermatium arises. The spermagonia and aecidia 
are closely associated and mature at the same time. The formation of the 
uredospores and teleutospores offers nothing noteworthy. 
na preliminary paper, KUNKEL® gave an account of the highly interesting 
discovery that the widely distributed blackberry rust (Caeoma nitens), which 
as a result of infection experiments reported by TRANZSCHEL and by CLINTON 
has been regarded as the aecidial form of Puccinia Peckiana, is in reality a rust 
of the Endophyllum type. This conclusion was based upon the observation 
that the aecidiospores of this fungus on germination produce promycelia and 
sporidia instead of germ tubes. The nuclear phenomena occurring in the ger- 
minating aecidiospores are described in a later paper. e processes agree in 
all essentials with those i in the ‘germinating aecidiospore of Endophyllum. At 
maturity tl p ] these eg hae before germination 
begins, so that th inati idi e fusion nucleus 
usually passes into the germ tube, where two divisions take place. Occasion- 
ally the first division occurs in the spore, as also reported by HorrMan” for 
Endophyllum Sempervivi. Five cells are formed in the promycelium; the basal 
one, which is continuous with the spore cavity, contains very little protoplasm 
and no nucleus. Sporidia arise from the other cells in the usual way. 
time of germination the sporidia are generally binucleate as a result of a 
division of the original nucleus. These facts, as well as some negative results 
of infection experiments on blackberry leaves reported by the author, leave 
no doubt that the orange rust of the blackberry is an independent fungus of the 
type of Endophylium, and not, as hitherto supposed, the aecidial generation of 
Frome, F. D., Sexual fusions and spore development of the flax rust. Bull. 
Torr. Bot. Club 39:11 3-129. pls. 2 
* KUNKEL, L. O., The production of promycelium oe Hi aecidiospores of Caeoma 
nitens Burrill. Bull. Torr. Bot. Club 40:361-366. fig. 1 
, Nuclear sagt in the promycelium of oe nitens Burrill and 
Puccinia Peckiana Howe. Am. Jour. Bot. 1:37-47. p/. 1. 1914. 
* Rev. Bor. Gaz. 54:437. 1912. 
