586 General Notes. [July, 



promycelium) is sent out (Fig. 4 £) which becomes septate, and 

 eventually bears sporidia (erroneously called conidia by Mr. Ward). 

 In this the resemblance to the corresponding process in Puccinia, 

 Uromyces, etc., is so great as lo leave little doubt as to the identity 

 of the teleutospores of Hemileia and those of the Uredineae. It is 



a significant fact that although the sporidia were readily germina- 

 ted, they soon shriveled up and died, and this took place even 

 when the culture was made upon living coffee leaves. The prob- 

 ble explanation of this is to be sought in the hetercecism of the 





be well, therefore, for those who ; 



gating this parasite to direct their attention to the discovery of 

 the alternate host. May it not be possible that Hemileia vastatnx 

 has but recently fixed itself upon the coffee-plant, and that the lat- 

 ter is capable of serving for its host in only two of the stages of 

 the parasites ? Indeed, may not the query be entertained here 

 whether the hetercecism of the Uredineae, so particularly notice- 

 able in those species which affect the grasses, is not simply the 

 sort of transition stage in the change of habitat of the parasite 

 from one host to another?— C. E. B. 



Popularizing Cryptogamic Botany.— One of the hopeful signs 

 in the botanical world, so far as we in this country are concerned, 

 is that some of our masters in certain lines of research are writing 

 in simple English about the lower plants. Dr. Halsted's paper 

 ' Fungi Injurious to Vegetation," read before the Conn. Board o\ 

 Agriculture, and published in the hist report of the Board, is a 

 model worthy of being followed by many others. In this paper 

 spurred rye, the potato rot, the wheat rust, the corn smut, 

 the onion smut, the black knot, the apple-leaf fungus, the 

 peach curl fungus, the American -rape mildew, the lettuce 

 mildew, and the raspberry fungus, are discussed in a very in- 

 structive and entertaining way. It is astonishing how much can 

 be said-and accurately said too— in simple English, if the sub- 

 ject matter be well understood by the writer or speaker. A 

 second admirable example of the treatment of a subject sorecon- 



