A NOTE ON INDIAN WHEAT-RUSTS 
m6 
Uredospayps echinulate, yellow, circular or shortly elliptical, 
germ-pores usually 3 but sometimes 4, and rarely 5 in number, irre- 
gularly scattered over the surface, 24 x 24 or 24 x 19 /x. 
Teleutospores very short-stalked, deep brown, relatively broad^ 
often slightly curved, the terminal cell frequently obliquely truncate, 
36 X 27 ft. 
In thg only experiment on artificial infection of wheat which, 
owing to the early onset of extreme heat, it was possible to conduct, 
the procedure adopted was as follows: — Samples of wheat were 
sown in five pots, and after they had freely germinated, the young 
blades were sprayed with water in which the uredospores of the 
Launea rust had been diffused in large numbers. In four instances 
no signs of any infection followed, probably in consequence of the 
extreme aridity of the air evaporating the moisture before the 
spores had had time to germinate. In order to avoid this source 
of fallacy, in the remaining case the pot was covered by a bell-glass, 
the iaterior of which had been thoroughly moistened with spray, for 
a period of foriy-eight hours after the application of the spores 
to the leaves, and here infection manifested itself a week later in 
the form of an eruption of scattered yellow sori on a considerable 
number of leaves. The characters of the sori and the uredospores 
that they contained were precisely those of the natural rust, and, 
had it not been for the possibility that a certain number of uredos- 
pores derivej font the wheat, may have been adherent to Launea 
leaves which furnished the infective material, demonstration of 
the genetic relation between the two diseases would have been 
complete. 
Reviewing briefly the results Ci the season’s observations it is 
apparent in the first place that several blights of the nature of 
European “ Rust” affect wheat in India. 
Of these we may most advantageously consider first the rust 
that was originally observed in January on the wheat at Shibpur ; for 
convenience of reference this will be spoken of as the ‘'Shibpur 
Rust,’^ The description given of its uredospores tallies so well, in 
spite of slight differences, with the description of the uredospores of 
Puccinia rubigo-vera given by Winter and by Plowright that, were 
there no other discrepancies, it might perhaps be sufficient to deal 
with it as only a form of that species. There is reason to believe, 
moreover, that this blight may form at least part of the “rust^’ 
tentatively referred to P. rubigo-vera by Dr. Barclay. 
That it differs specifically from P. rubigo-vera to us to be, 
however, highly probable. The reasons for this doubt may be stated 
