42 



Mycologia 



to determine whether or not the rust would reappear. For this 

 reason the infected growth was left undisturbed in the fall, and 

 no attempt was made to control the disease. 



Throughout the present summer the mint beds have been care- 

 fully watched but no trace of the rust has been found at any time. 



These observations, though somewhat superficial, would seem 

 to indicate that this rust, which is capable of destroying the foliage 

 of the mint plant during a wet season, may become entirely inac- 

 tive with the return of a normal season. 



A. H. Chivers. 



Some Papers Presented during Convocation Week 



At a joint session of the Botanical Society and the Phytopatho- 

 logical Society held Friday afternoon, December 28, in connection 

 with the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 

 a number of papers were delivered which were of interest to 

 mycologists. 



The first paper of the afternoon was presented by Dr. J. C. 

 Arthur, of Purdue University. After briefly outlining the re- 

 sults of his work on the rust cultures for the season, he gave a 

 very interesting retrospect of his work on rust cultures beginning 

 in 1899. Previous to this time, it had been pretty generally 

 agreed that each rust had a definite life cycle consisting of sev- 

 eral stages often borne on different host plants, but the life his- 

 tories of few species were well known. 



About this time a visit was made to Charles B. Plowright of 

 England and his methods of culturing rusts studied carefully. 

 These methods were very simple and consisted in sprinkling a 

 barberry bush with water from an ordinary sprinkling can. The 

 teliospores were then removed from some grass and placed on th~ 

 leaves of the barberry. The plant was again sprinkled and placed 

 under a belljar, where it was allowed to remain for several days. 

 The belljar was then removed and in due time the rust infection 

 appeared. 



On returning to America these methods were employed with 

 some modifications in working out the life histories of various 

 species of rusts. The work has been continued up to the present 

 time and the results published at intervals in various scientific 



