A NOTE ON INDIAN WHEAT* RUSTS. 
109 
met with at Jabalpur or Khandwa, was her^ as in Bengal, local but 
very abundant where it occurred. The first field examined was full 
of the species, and nearly every plant was badly affected by the 
Puccinia sQQ.n in Bengal and in North Behar. In this instance, 
however, no uredospores were found ; teleutospores were very abund- 
ant and appeared to occur only in small spots arranged in concen- 
tric circles — a condition which occurred, but was not the most usual, 
in Bengal. Very few plants were quite healthy ; of the diseased ones 
about 30 per cent, had aecidiosporic fructifications ; these were here 
much less frequently borne on specially modified shoots than on dis- 
torted flowering branches ; these branches much more frequently 
shrivelled up into brittle twigs than damped off. Continuing the 
search on ist March, the local occurrence of the species was well 
seen from the fact that no Launea asplenifolia was obtained till a 
point was reached two miles away from the previous afternoon’s patch, 
and three more miles had to be passed till another diseased patch was 
met with. As on the preceding day, the search failed to yield a speci- 
men with uredospores and no rust was found either on wheat or barley* 
in one field a number of plants of Launea nudicaulis. were found ; 
though growing alongside of badly blighted Launea asplenifolia 
none of them were diseased. Launea nudicaulis was also found to 
occur on roadsides in the station itself. The name for both Launeas 
was^ again gobi ; the name for the rust gerhwi as at Allahabad, not 
gerhwa as at Jabalpur and Khandwa ; the cultivators, however, use as 
an alternative the name roriy though not so commonly as the other. 
The discovery of Launea asplenifolia diseased, on black cotton 
soil, leads to the suspicion, when its very local occurrence is taken 
into consideration, that it may only have been overlooked at Jabalpur 
and at Khandwa. Captain Finhey, Political Agent at Neemuch, 
himself an enthusiastic botanist, very kindly assisted in the search 
of 29th February io^ Launea asplenifoliay and on visiting Ujain ten 
days later most kindly searched for it there, with the result of ascer- 
taining that at Ujain it is as plentiful, and was this year as badly 
diseased, as at Neemuch. It therefore certainly extends as far south 
as to the latitude of Jabalpur, carrying the Puccinia with it. 
At Ajmir, on March 2nd, none of the supposed Puccinia Ruhigo-^ 
vera was found on the wheat. At a point 5 miles from Ajmir on 
the Jeypore road the supposed Puccinia graminis was found on a 
wheat plant ; the same rust was found on a barley-plant in a field 2 
miles south of Ajmir on the Nusserabad road. No Launea asplenifolia 
was found ; Launea nudicaulis was here more plentiful than in any 
of the other places visited. It is known as gobiy and was without any 
disease. The rust is here roriox roli. 
