92 Magnus . — On some Species of 
base. Trabut proved these to be due to the presence of 
a Fungus which he named Entyloma leproideum , and described 
and figured it afterwards in the £ Revue Generale de Botanique,’ 
T. vi (1894), p. 409, under the name of Oedomyces leproides , 
Saccardo having founded upon it the genus Oedomyces . 
Subsequently Saccardo and Mattirolo published an elaborate 
paper on the subject in Malpighia anno X (1895). Trabut, 
Saccardo and Mattirolo state that the Fungus occurs in cysts 
provided with a strong membrane (quasi cellulas giganteas). 
The cysts are scattered irregularly through the swellings, and 
the spores are produced from evanescent hyphae by acrogenous 
and intercalary abstriction. Saccardo distinguished it from 
Entyloma , mainly ‘cystis vel singularibus et forma subhemi- 
sphaerica sporarum.’ Trabut describes the spores thus : * De 
forme spherique deprimee avec pedicelle tres court, insere sur 
une eminence au centre de la face deprimee. . 
These authors refer the Fungus to the Ustilagineae. Sac- 
cardo and Mattirolo support this view by pointing to the 
formation of the cysts within the tissue of the root of the 
host-plant, to the new growth caused by the parasite, to 
the acrogenous and intercalary origin of the spores, and 
finally to the structure and colour of the latter. Ed. Prillieux, 
in his work, £ Maladies des plantes agricoles et des arbres 
fruitiers et forestiers, causees par des parasites vegetaux,’ 
Tome I (Paris, 1895), pp. 193-197, refers to this disease 
and assigns the Fungus to the Ustilagineae. 
Thanks to ’the kindness of Professor O. Mattirolo, who 
sent me a specimen in alcohol, I have been able to examine 
this Beetroot parasite. It proves to be a Urophlyctis , and 
must therefore bear the name U. leproides (Trab.), P. Magn. 
The cysts have a wall of exactly the same thickness as the 
central cell of the gall of U. Kriegeriana , and the parasite 
lives also exclusively within the cysts, as the authors above 
cited have shown. According to these authors the cysts are 
embedded singly in the parenchyma of the swellings, and 
originate from the hypertrophy of the cells attacked by the 
parasite. I cannot quite confirm this. I found rather that 
