6/2 General Notes. [August, 



tions made by the continental botanists. It is, therefore, gratify- 

 ing to find in the last number of Grevillea, a paper on " Exotic 

 Fungi," by M. C. Cooke, in which the modern views as to the 

 Uredineae appear to be fully accepted. In this paper the species 

 of Puccinia are' described as including three stages, viz : i. The 

 /Ecidium stage; II. The Uredo stage; and in. The Teleutospore 

 stage. This is practically identical with the method followed by 

 Fuckel in his Symbols Mycolo»ic<?.. In the year 1879 Cooke pub- 

 lished a rearrangement of the British species of Uromyces, in 

 Grevillea, in which he brought together the three stages of the 

 plants of that genus, in a manner similar to that now adopted for 

 Puccinia. We may then fairly conclude that so far as the great 

 English fungologist is concerned, the autonomy of ^Ecidium is 

 no longer to be admitted. While it may be necessary for us to 

 name the new /Ecidia as found, as is done by Cooke in his last 

 article in Grevillea, such names are not to be regarded as having 

 right to place in any system of classification. The JEcidium 

 acanthaeeantm, .■/'{. plectronnc, Ai. dissotidis, sE. vangnerkv and 

 sE. cardiospermi, described as new by Cooke, must be considered 

 as so many imperfect forms of Uredineae, and the names given 

 them are merely for their convenient and ready designation. 



If now we are to accept this view of the nature of the Uredin- 

 eae, why should we not, for the sake of uniformity, call the first 

 the conidial stage, the second the stylosporous stage, and the 

 third the teleutosporous stage; the first producing conidia, the 

 second stylospores and the third teleutospores. Certainly the 

 homologies would be more fully respected by the use of these 

 terms. It is, perhaps, too early to urge that as the teleutospores 

 appear to be in reality reduced asci, containing one or more asco- 

 spores, they should be called asci simply. We have elsewhere 

 given reasons for considering the Uredineae to be greatly reduced 

 or degraded Ascomycetes, and they need not be repeated here. 

 The conidia (with their accompanying spermatia) and stylo- 

 spores of Uredineae have the same general relation to the teleuto- 

 spores that the conidia, spermatia and stylospores of ordinary As- 

 comycetes have to the asci and ascospores, and they might well 

 bear the same names. 



Allen's Ciiarace.e American.*: Exsiccat.e. — Of this most 

 excellent work, the second and third fasciculi have recently ap- 

 peared. The specimens are ample and are so well preserved that 

 they invite even the tyro to their study. In fasciculus n, the 

 species are as follows, the numbers continued from fasciculus 1 ! 

 II, 12, 13, 14, Chara £oronata Ziz., various forms; 15, Ch.excelsa 

 Allen; 16, Ch. evoluta Allen; 17, 18, Ch. fcetida A. Br., two 

 forms; 19, Ch. contraria A. Br.; 20, Ch. fragilis Desv. 



In fasciculus in the species are : 21, Oi. fragilis Desv., a sec- 

 ond form ; 22, Ch. delicatula Ag. ; 23, Ch. gymnopus var. elegans 



