117 
ing the ovaries, frequently transforming a whole spikelet into a solid 
mass of spores enveloped in a whitish to buff-colored tegument. The 
lower lateral solitary spikelets, when attacked, are changed into irreg¬ 
ular roundish knots, or nodules, as large a medium sized pea. Spores 
roundish, oblong, oval or ovate and variously compressed; contents 
pale olivaceous, epispore smooth, reddish brown ; general color of spore 
a bright warm brown, slightly olive tinged, G-10 p wide, by 6-14 p 
long. J. B. Ellis and F. W. Anderson. 
REVIEWS OF RECENT LITERATURE. 
Kellerman, W. A., and Swingle, W. T .—Preliminary experi¬ 
ments with fungicides for stinking smut of wheat. Bulletin No. 12.— 
August, 1890. Botanical Department of the Experiment Station, Kan¬ 
sas State Agricultural College, Manhattan, Kans. 
The wisdom of the recent establishment of State experiment stations 
by the General Government has been called in question in certain quar¬ 
ters. Nevertheless, the stations are here to stay, and their public use¬ 
fulness becomes more and more apparent, especially after reading 
such a paper as this from the Kansas station. The results are striking 
and conclusive, and worth more to the wheat-growers of this country 
than the cost of all the stations. 
In the main these experiments are a repetition and confirmation of 
those made in Europe by Jensen, Kuhn, and others. Fifty-two treat¬ 
ments were given for the prevention of stone smut in wheat ( Tilletia ). 
The substances experimented with were : 
Hot water of various temperatures ; lye of different strengths ; solu¬ 
tions of copper sulphate with and without lime, and of different 
strengths; Bordeaux mixtures, full and half strength; eau celeste; 
solution of sodium hyposulphite, with and without lime, and of differ¬ 
ent strengths; solution of potassium sulphide, with and without lime, 
and of different strengths; arsenic; lime; salt; soap; cistern water; 
chloroform; ether; sulphurous oxide; carbon bisulphide; ammonium 
hydrate; carbolic acid; sodium sulphate, bicarbonate and carbonate; 
potassium bichromate; mercuric chloride, and salicylic acid. 
Fifty untreated strips, alternating with the treated ones and contain¬ 
ing a total of 6,227 square feet, afford the basis for comparisons. The 
total heads produced on these 50 plats were by actual count 122,432, of 
which over seventy-one per cent, were smutted. The highest per cent, 
of smutted heads on any plat was 81.61 per cent.; the lowest was 53.54 
per cent. The average number of bushels of sound grain per acre (cal¬ 
culated) on 41 of these plats is only 4.68. By an oversight no calculation 
was made for the other nine plats, but these were much like the rest, and 
the average of the fifty could not have varied much from that here given. 
Undoubtedly the yield was smaller and the per cent of smut greater 
owing to the fact that the grain was sowed in November and made a 
slow and feeble autumn growth. In this connection it is interest- 
