16 



FARLOW ON THE GYMNOSPORANGIA 



J. virginiana, described in Bigelow's Med. Botany and by yourself (Sir J. W. Hooker to 

 whom the letter was originally addressed), in the Flora Boreal. Amer., also in the 

 description of the J. bermudiana in the London Journal of Botany for March 1843. The 

 form of the leaf is in both cases acerose, but the tuft to which I refer forms a single dense 

 mass, the twigs so crowded together as scarcely to allow the light to pass through, looking 

 at a distance like the nest of some bird. These masses vary in size from that of the first 

 to eighteen inches in diameter. Generally not more than one mass is seen on the same 

 tree, sometimes, however, two or three. I have never seen a single tuft like those described 

 in which the fungus in question was not present, and this is the result of a great number of 

 observations." Ths description of the acerose leaves and the dense growth of the 

 branches, which look in the distance like bird's nests, is excellent, but the species which 

 causes this distortion of the branches is not G. macropus but G. clavipes, a distinct species 

 as we shall see hereafter, and one having no connection with the cedar-apples proper. 

 The figures of Wyman represent the spores of G. macropus, except that some of them 

 appear to be germinating at the tip in the mode characteristic of G. clavipes. 



The species is very widely distributed and is, as a rule, very common, but is not recorded 

 in some localities where one would have expected it. Mr. Peck informs me that it is not 

 common near Albany, N. Y., and it is not mentioned in Tuckerman's Catalogue of the 

 Plants growing near Amherst. It is certainly very common in Eastern Massachusetts, 

 New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland, and although said by Schweinitz to be rare in 

 North Carolina, has been found by Ravenel and Mellichamps to be common in South Car- 

 olina. The comparative scarcity of J. virginiana in the Western States would account 

 for the absence of G . macropus in many Western localities. The injury done to the trees 

 affected is comparatively slight, as was remarked by Schweinitz, and the reason for this is 

 apparent if we consider the short duration and the mode of growth of the mycelium. The 

 cedar-apples are said to be used as anthelmintics and the United States Dispensatory gives 

 as the dose ten to twenty grains three times a day. In Massachusetts the use of the apples 

 as medicine is, as far as I can ascertain, unknown, and the practice is probably confined to 

 Pennsylvania and the Southern States. 



The spores of G. macropus are pretty uniformly ovate and acute at both extremities, 

 and although they bear a certain resemblance to those of G. clavariaeforme, they are 

 markedly shorter and broader. Schroeter suspects that G. macropus is only a form of 

 the last-named species, but the fact that there is a difference in the spores and that one is 

 annual and the other perennial, not to mention the difference in habit, clearly forbids a 

 union of the two. 



Gtmnosporangium fuscum De Cand. 



Gymno sporangium fuscum D. C, Flore franchise, Vol. n, p. 217 ; Reess, loc. cit., p. 16. 

 Podisoma Juniperi Link., Observ. I, p. 9 ; Species Plantarum, Vol. vi, part n, p. 127 ; 



Sprague in Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., Vol. v, p. 329 ; Frost in Tuckerman's List of 



Plants of Amherst. 

 Podisoma Juniperi Sabinae Fr., Syst. Myc, Vol. in, p. 508. 



