434 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [DECEMBER 
branches of larger trees, certain leaves, sometimes one or two 
together, but more often all the leaves of a twig or small branch, 
which were peculiar in appearance. These leaves were conspicuous 
from their paler yellowish-green color, which contrasted with the 
deep green of the healthy leaves, and were thicker and often dis- 
tinctly larger than those of the normal foliage, as indicated in the - 
accompanying text figure, photographed from dried material. 
Although every leaf of such twigs or branches was invariably 
affected, the latter showed little if any modification or distortion, and 
little if any tendency was observable to the formation of a witches 
broom, through the growth of adventitious shoots. The under 
side of these leaves were livid white in color, owing evidently to a 
continuous covering of asci, and I was greatly pleased to know that 
I had added a Taphrina to my overflowing basket of treasures. 
On examining sections of this material, the asci proved to be 
rather stout, distally truncate or rounded, seated on a broader 
basal cell between the ruptured cutis and the epidermis, the outline 
of which was unbroken by any rhizoidal intrusion of the fungus 
between its cells. The asci were so densely filled with a very uni- 
form coarsely granular fatty protoplasm, that no structures resem- 
bling spores were at first observed, and the material was laid aside 
on the assumption that it was immature. On reexamining it, 
however, and breaking the asci by crushing them, the coarse pro- 
toplasm was forced out, and I was astonished to see mingled with it 
great numbers of peculiar appendiculate bodies (fig. 6), so unlike 
any described ascospores of this group that it was not till I had 
actually seen them emerge from within the ascus when under 
pressure, that I was convinced of their true nature. After remain- 
ing in glycerin for some days, the granular contents of the ascus 
become modified, so that the spores, in different stages of develop- 
ment, are clearly visible (figs. 3, 4), and the origin of this singular 
habit in the mature spore is readily made out by a comparison 
of these stages (figs. 5, 6). The primary spores are always eight 
in number, relatively small in proportion to the size of the ascus 
(fig. 3), regularly oval in outline, and very uniform in size. As 
their development progresses, a bud appears at either extremity, 
which enlarges to form a stout, nearly cylindrical or somewhat 
