1833. | Botany. ` #7 
substances, in which his former conclusions regarding pseudo- 
symmetry appear to be confirmed. Hintze reports the discovery 
of Danburite in Switzerland, on the Scopi.. The crystals were at 
first thought to be topaz, which they closely resemble. The angles 
measured corresponded closely with those of the American min- 
eral—_—A nugget of gold, weighing forty-four pounds, has been 
found in the Ural district. This is the largest nugget ever found 
in Russia. It is reported that natural sulphuric acid has been 
found in large quantity in Sweetwater county, Wyoming. The 
ground for a space of one hundred acres or more is impregnated 
with the acid, which is said to be of pure quality. 
BOTANY. 
THE INTERPRETATION OF SCHWEINITZIAN AND OTHER EARLY 
Descriptions.—In working up the flora of Iowa, it has been 
necessary in a number of instances to identify Schweinitzian spe- 
cies of microscopic fuagi. I have had in the Herb. Curtis and 
Ravenel’s Exsiccati, specimens upon the same species of host 
recorded by Schweinitz, and from the same immediate locality, to 
compare with his descriptions. In several cases I have been 
cates of the originals from which the descriptions were taken. 
The following instances, which have probably puzzled many other 
botanists, will serve as illustrations: 
The uredineous fungus, abundant on various species of Lespe- 
dezz, forming blackish spots on the leaves, and now known as 
Uromyces lespedeze, is quite fully described by Schweinitz, under 
the genus Puccinia. He makes two species, one of which has 
spores that are distinctly two-celled or bilocular, and the other 
those that are sub-bilocular. In the former he says the “ septum 
is situated exactly in the middle of the spore,” while in the latter 
it is barely conspicuous (Syn. Fung. Car., p.73). A glance under 
a common microscope, however, reveals the incongruous fact that 
the spores are but one-celled, and that there is not even a shadow 
of a septum. How is-such an egregious blunder to be reconciled 
with the accuracy characteristic of science and scientific men? 
This cannot be a slip of the pen, for in his Synopsis of North 
American Fungi, published nine years later, there is no correc- 
tion, and the species still remain in the genus Puccinia, which 
‘would not be the case if he had ascertained in the meantime that 
“the spores were unicellular. ; ae 
©- Another equally remarkable instance is that of the common 
Uromyces on Desmodium. In the earlier work the spores are 
‘said to be obscurely. septate with very long pellucid pedicels (I. c., 
P-74). ‘In the later work he describes the species at greater 
+ "Edited by PROF. C: E. Bessey, Ames, Towa. | 
