News and Notes 



331 



Mr. A. H. Graves describes a large leaf-spot chestnut and attrib- 

 utes the disease to Monochaetia Desmazierii Sacc, giving Querciis 

 rubra as another host. I have also found the disease upon 

 Quercus nigra in abundance in this neighborhood. Mr. Graves 

 says that Dr. Farlow examined the original material of M. 

 Desmasierii and found that the spores were not mature but that 

 later he examined other material sent out by Desmazieres and 

 found that this material agrees with the fungus upon the chestnut, 

 and that it also agrees with Desmazieres' description of the 

 fungus. He also cites the fact that Dr. Stevens and myself men- 

 tioned a similar disease of chestnut in our ' Diseases of Economic 

 Plants,' and suggests that they may be caused by the same 

 organism. 



" I have every reason to believe that the disease described by Mr. 

 Graves is identical with that described by us and is caused by the 

 same fungus. However, the identity of the fungus seems to be 

 in doubt. According to the descriptions in Saccardo, the only 

 authority available to us when ' Diseases of Economic Plants ' 

 was published, the fungus is Monochaetia pachyspora Bubak, as 

 it has three dark-colored cells in the center of the spore, while 

 Pestalozzia monochaeta Desm., which becomes M. Desmasierii 

 Sacc, has only two such cells. At the end of the description of 

 M. pachyspora, Saccardo says that the spores of this fungus are 

 thicker than those of M, Desmasierii, while our measurements 

 agree with those given for M. pachyspora. It seems to me that 

 the name M. pachyspora should become a synonym of M. Des- 

 masierii but that the description of the latter should be revised to 

 correspond with the original specimen and description as written 

 by Desmazieres." 



New Combinations for Tropical Agarics 



A number of species of gill-fungi described by me from 

 tropical America in Mycologia, 1911-1912, under genera not 

 found in Saccardo's Sylloge, are here recombined for the benefit 

 of those having or using herbaria arranged according to this 

 work. Collectors, pathologists, and others who may not be in- 



