V 
BY D. McALPINE. 465 
puccinia, and may therefore be dismissed, so that P. conglomerate*, 
has only to be considered; of which A. senecionis is the recognised 
aecidial stage. This aecidium is given by Dr. Cooke in his 
" Handbook of Australian Fungi (p. 342) for New South Wales 
and Victoria " for Senecio, but no species is mentioned; still the 
presumption is that we have here its Puccinia-stage and so 
resemblances and differences will have to be carefully noted. The 
principal points of difference in the aecidial stage are that the 
aecidia of the Groundsel rust are on pale green spots, not on 
brown, and are not margined with black, but otherwise there is 
general agreement, except that their spores are rather smaller. 
It is in the Puccinia-stage, however, that the differences are most 
marked, and for convenience may be shown in tabular form : — 
P. conglomerata. P. erechtitis. 
Length of teleutospore 24-52 jx , 36-63 p. 
Breadth 14-26 fx 15-25 p. (agree). 
| surmounted by j 
Apex ,, < pale or colour- <j none. 
( less papilla I 
T ,t £ v i f short or moder- ( , 
-Length ot pedicel < , , , { lone*. 
& 1 \ ately long ( ° 
Persistence ,, very deciduous .. . decidedly persistent 
Thickness ,, very slender moderately stout. 
Colour ,, hyaline often yellow tint. 
While a solitary character, such as the relative length of the 
stalk, or its persistence, would not justify specific rank, still the 
aggregate of relatively fixed characters, such as the apical papilla, 
the length and persistence of the stalk, form specific distinctions. 
Finally, Dr. P. Dietel gives critical notes on all Puccinias 
occurring on Senecio and allied Composite in his paper on 
"Puccinia conglomerata und die auf Senecio und einigen ver- 
wandten Composite vorkommenden Puccinien.""* He remarks 
there that recent writers have placed many different species in P. 
conglomerata and considers that P. senecionis, Lib., and P. expansa, 
Helwigia. Bd. xxx. 291 (1891). 
