180 Bailey . — Puccinia malvaceantm and the My coplasm Theory . 
the absolute regularity of behaviour of the submerged spores in Series I to 
III (i 7 cases) and of the exposed spores in the remaining series (93 pustules) 
is taken into account. 
( An alternative explanation is that the pustules contain spores which 
can only germinate in one way or the other, and that sporidial germination 
is inhibited by very wet conditions and vice versa. 
This, however, is very difficult to reconcile with the fact that the two cells 
of a single spore, floating on the surface of water, sometimes germinate 
differently. Nor is it supported by the evidence as to the proportion of 
germinated to ungerminated spores in the two kinds of cultures : germina- 
tion was very irregular throughout, and no connexion can be traced between 
full and scanty germination and the production of one particular kind of 
spore 
A noticeable feature in the behaviour of the oidial spores was their 
tendency to early disorganization, but this may have been due merely to 
the fact that the bacteria, which caused their decay, were unduly favoured 
by the presence of the surrounding water. 
7. Difference in behaviour of spores in inoctdation experiments . Eriks- 
son gives results in tabular form showing that infection experiments with 
those teleutospores which germinate to form sporidia almost always give 
positive results, whilst teleutospores which produce oidia give apparently 
negative results. In one case he got a positive result by infecting with 
a pustule of oidia-forming teleutospores, but this he explains by assuming 
that there were a certain number of sporidia mixed up with the other spores. 
If the view is accepted that the oidial form of spore is the result of 
abnormally wet conditions, it would seem likely that the spore, being itself 
abnormal, would show a decreased infective power. 
This would appear to have been the case in Eriksson’s investigations, 
but the experiments conducted by the present author show no particular 
prepotence of either of the two forms. 
The results of these experiments, which were relatively few in number, 
are given in tabular form below. They were carried out during a spell of 
very hot weather under conditions which were not very favourable to the 
fungus. 
The method used was that described by Eriksson in his paper. Each 
leaf was inoculated in six places — three on either side of the midrib. The 
inoculations on the right side of the midrib were carried out with pustules 
which had germinated to form sporidia only, whilst those on the left side 
were carried out with pustules which had produced oidia only. 
The plants used were hollyhocks, bearing about twelve leaves apiece 
and just beginning to send up flowering spikes. Inoculations were made on 
the upper surface of the leaves. 
One leaf only of each plant was inoculated in the manner described, 
