MELAMPSORA 3857 
Flax ; the spermogones are flask-shaped, subepidermal, without ostiolar 
filaments, the ecidia are small and apparently difficult to distinguish. 
No other author seems to have met with these, unless the structures to 
which Fischer assigns a “ parenchymatous peridium” were such ecidia. 
It would keep the disease in check if infected Flax plants were pulled 
up and burnt as soon as seen, but such a remedy is impracticable on a 
large scale. No really immune varieties of Flax are:known, but fortunately 
the parasite seems not to occur in the Irish flax-fields. 
DISTRIBUTION: Europe, North and South America, Australia. 
15. Melampsora vernalis Niessl. 
Uredo Saxifragarum DC. Flor. fr. vi. 87. Cooke, Handb. p. 525; 
Micr. Fung. p. 215. 
Caeoma Saxifragae Wint. Pilze, p. 258. Plowr. Ured. p. 259. 
Melampsora vernalis Niessl, in Wint. Pilze, p. 237 (1881). Plowr. 
Gard. Chron. 1890, viii. 41; Jour. Roy. Hort. Soc. xii. p. cxi; 
Trans. Brit. Myc. Soc. i. 59. Sacc. Syll. vii. 592. 
M. Saxifragarum Schrot. in Cohn’s Krypt. Flor. Schles, p. 375 (1887). 
Fischer, Ured. Schweiz, p. 511. 
Spermogones. Scattered, yellow. 
4icidiospores. Cxomata small, elliptic, flat, solitary, golden- 
yellow; spores in chains, roundish, finely verruculose, 17—30 u. 
[Uredospores. Sori epiphyllous, very small, round; spores 
ellipsoid, echinulate, golden-yellow, 16—20 x 15 y.] 
Teleutospores. Sori densely clustered, subepidermal, small, 
irregular, chestnut-brown ; spores oblong to clavate, yellowish- 
brown, 40—50 x 14 w. 
On Sazifraga granulata. Rare. June—September. 
Plowright states that, on the specimens collected by Mr James Taylor 
at Clark Farquhar, N.B., in June, 1890, the teleutospores were found on 
the lower leaves and stems, and there were no uredospores. The descrip- 
tion of the latter is after Voglino and Fischer, and may not belong to the 
British species. The connection of the coma with the teleutospores has 
been proved by Plowright and Dietel. 
DisTRiBUTION: Germany, Switzerland, Italy. 
