IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 
95 
(Willd.) Fr. according to some writers. Hartig^ also mentions a 
connection with Gronartium, while Klebahn calls the Peridermium con- 
nected with the above Gronartium, P. cornui Kostr. & Kleb. As there 
are no Asclepiadaceous plants on which cronartium might occur in 
this region that host need not be considered. 
Gronartium gentianum Thum.'-^ is considered to be a synonym of G. 
asclepiadeum by Winter, this author stating that all hitherto described 
forms had better be reduced to two species. Saccardo, however, recog- 
nizes eight species, G. asclepiadeum Willd, having three varieties. The 
writer has observed in the Uintah mountains a species of Gronartium 
on Oentiana and Gomandra, but the specimens were lost during the 
fire before a careful study and comparison with types could be made, 
the Gentiana occurring at higher altitudes and the Gomandra cronar- 
tium at lower. Investigation may show that the corticolous Perider- 
mium cerebrum is connected with this Gronartium. It may be of inter- 
est to mention now that a corticolous Peridermium has been found by 
the writer in St. Louis and that Burrilp reports Gronartium asclepiadeum 
Kze. var thesii Berk, from Illinois stating that it is identical with one 
distibuted by Ellis^ from Newfield, New Jersey. Underwood an^ Cook^ 
distributed this fungus from Syracuse, New York. Plowright’s note® 
on G. pini is of interest in this connection. 
“The connection between Goleosporium seneeionis and Peridermium 
pini was first demonstrated by Wolff in 1872. He first found that the 
sowing of the aecidiospores of Aec. pini, both from the leaves and also 
from the young branches, on Senecio viseosus, sylvaticus, vernalis, jaeo- 
baea, and vulgaris, gave rise to the uredospores of the Goleosporium. In 
1882, I repeated Wolff’s culture on vulgaris with the aecidispores 
from the leaves with success. In 1883, the Rev. Dr. Keith sent me 
from Forres a specimen of Aec. pini on the branch of a young fir-branch, 
the spores from which I used for infecting two plants of 8. vulgaris, but 
without success. Too much importance must not be attached to this 
failure, considering the distance from which the aecidiospores came. I 
have had, however, so many failures in infecting 8. vulgaris with the 
aecidspores from Aec. pini var. acicola, that I think there must be more 
than one sp’ecies included under this name. My friend, M. Max. Cornu 
informs me that in France he has succeeded in producing Gronartium 
asclepiadeum by sowing the aecidiospores of Aec. pini var. acicola on 
Vincetoxicum officinale. As neither the Gronartium nor its host occurs 
in Britain, we must conclude that the aecidiospores which M. Cornu 
employed belong to a distinct species.” 
1. Textbook of the Diseases of Trees. 172. 
2. Oester. Bot. Zeitschr. 1878: 193. 
3. Parasitic Fling, of 111. 211. 
Synonymy. C. asclepiadeum var. th^sU Hook. Bond. Jour. Bot. 4 : 311. 
C. comandra Peck. Bot. Gazette. 4 ; 128. 
4. Bxsic. Ellis. N. Am. Fung. 1082. 
5. Cent. Illustr. Fung. 48. 
6. Brit. Ured. & Ustilag. 249. 
