164 Robinson. — Notes on the Genus Taphrina. 
more regard for the rules of priority in nomenclature, retains 
the name Taphrina of Fries. There appears to be all the 
more reason for this from the fact that, as early as 1866, 
Tulasne 1 revised the genus of Fries and expanded its limits 
so that it might take in all the species then known of 
Ascomyces and Exoascus, thus using the name Taphrina , so 
far as the knowledge of the time enabled him, in the same 
sense as it is at present employed. From these considerations 
it seems best to follow Johanson in calling the group c Taphrina , 
Fries, char, a Tulasne emend./ a sort of nomenclature which, 
if not brief, is yet in accord with priority, and incapable of 
being misunderstood. 
The members of this genus are in structure among the 
simplest of the Ascomycetes, and in them no trace of sexual 
function has yet been found. They present also some features 
of similarity to the Saccharomycetes, to which group there 
seems a growing tendency to consider them closely related 2 . 
With one possible exception, all the species known are 
parasitic in their habit. They seldom attack herbs, but are 
commonly found on shrubs or trees, especially those of the 
Rosaceae, whence the chief economic importance of their 
study. Their mycelia penetrate the tissues of the host to 
various depths where, in some species at least, they pass the 
winter. In the spring they begin their development anew, 
and enter the young shoots and leafy parts of the plant 
attacked ; here they spread their hyphae beneath the cuticle, 
or in some species just below the epidermis, forming a 
branching network. From this sort of hymenium the asci 
arise. They are more or less cylindrical in form, and 
usually occur in great numbers, densely packed together. 
They are found between the cuticle and epidermis, being 
developed in the species which have their hymenia beneath 
the epidermis, as enlarged ends of vertical threads which, 
1 Super Friesians Taphrinarum Genere, in Ann. des Sciences nat., ser. 5, Tome v, 
1866, p. 122. 
2 See De Bary, Vergl. Morph, und Biol, der Pilze, Mycetozoen und Bacterien, 
Leipzig, 1884, pp. 286-294. 
