6 
Journal of Mycology 
[Vol. 11 
SYDOW'S MONOGRAPHIA UREDINEARUM, WITH 
NOTES UPON AMERICAN SPECIES. 
J. C. ARTHUR. 
* 
The laudable attempt to describe and illustrate uniformly 
all known species of the Uredineae, undertaken by P. and H. 
Sydow,* has progressed to the completion of the first volume. 
This volume contains 1226 species, all so far known under the 
genus Puccinia, and a much larger number than the size and 
complexity of the family would seem to warrant. But all criti¬ 
cism regarding the accepted boundaries of the genus may well 
be laid aside in view of the successful manner in which the work 
of describing the species has been carried out. Nevertheless, one 
can not help regretting that the wholly unlike, and but distantly 
related, genus Uropyxis should have been engulfed in this mael¬ 
strom of two-celled spores, after it had been so clearly shown by 
Magnus to be distinct. Except as part of the useful Sylloge by 
Saccardo, which attempted little more than to collate published 
accounts of the species, no systematic and uniform treatment of 
all known species of this large family has ever been undertaken. 
The present work has entailed an enormous amount of labor. 
In citation of literature, in collation of items regarding hosts and 
geographical distribution, and in verifying and unifying the 
diagnoses, evident care has been exercised, and a large degree 
of accuracy attained. Nearly half the species are illustrated with 
original outline drawings. The authors state that to accomplish 
this work they examined some 30,000 specimens. We may well 
believe them when they say that “wir haben mit voller Lust und 
Liebe an dem Werke gearbeitet”; and the reward of well merited 
success should be theirs. 
The thirty pages of the introduction contain much descrip¬ 
tive, historical and statistical information. A very interesting 
list is given of authors of new species, with the number of species 
which they described each year from the time of Persoon, 1794, 
to the present time. In the matter of geographical distribution 
one is naturally surprised to find that just twice as many endemic 
species are credited to America as are found in Europe. One 
fourth of all the species inhabit the Compositae , and one eighth 
of them occur on the Gramineae. The six families which sup¬ 
port the next largest number of rusts are Umbelliferae with 88 
species, Cyperaceac with 53, Liliaceae with 47, Labiatae with 
45, Rubiaceae with 38, and Ranunculaceae with 36. 
Sydow, P. and H.— Monographia Uredinearum seu specieruni om¬ 
nium ad hunc usque diem descriptio et adumbratio systematica. Volume 
I, Genus Puccinia, cum XLV tabulis. Lipsiae, Fratres Borntraeger, 1904. 
pp. xv-f-972. 8vo. 
