Oct. 1902] Notes from Mycological Literature 
165 
fusion of the American species is here cleared up. Full descrip¬ 
tions and many illustrations are given of the seven species, of 
which two are new and two others receive new names. The 
article concludes with a serviceable key for determining un¬ 
named material, based upon distinctions of host, position on the 
host, and the character of the uredospores, as follows: 
ON SPARTINA. 
Sori arising from soft tissues (intercostal.) 
Uredospores wth wall thin, colored, echinulate.U. acuminatus. 
Uredospores with wall thick, pale, echinulate.P. distichlidis. 
Uredospores with wall thckened above, colorless, tuberculate 
.P. seymouriana. 
Sori arising from hard tissues (supercostal.) 
Uredospores with wall thickened above, colorless, tuberculate 
.P. fraxinata. 
ON PHRAGMITES. 
Sori artiphigenous, uredosori without paraphyses, 
Uredospores with four equatorial pores.P. rubella. 
Sori amphigenous, uredosori with paraphyses, 
Uredospores with indefinite, scattered pores.P. simillima. 
ON ARUNDINARIA. 
Sori hypophyllous, uredosori without paraphyses, 
Uredospores with rather thick wall, echinulate.P. arundinariae. 
The continuation of Rud. Litdi's Beitrage zur Kentniss 
der Chytridiaceae in Hedwigia (Beiblatt), March, 1902, enum¬ 
erates a large number of infection experiments with Synchytrium 
taraxaci and Synchytrium anemones. In the summary he states 
that Synchytrium taraxaci from Taraxacum officinale Wigg. 
could be transferred to T. ceratophorum DC., T. palustre DC., 
T. erythrospermum Andrz. (and also the vars. rubicundum 
Dahlst., lacistophyllum Dahlst., laetum Dahlst. and brachyglos- 
sum Dahlst.), T. corniculatum DC. and T. crepidiforme DC.; 
also that Synchytrium anemones wurde von Anemones nemorosa 
iibertragen auf Anemone silvestris. 
The Geastrae is the title of a useful pamphlet of 44 pages 
concisely written, profusely illustrated and generously distrib¬ 
uted by C. G. Lloyd, the well known mycologist of Cincinnati. A 
general account of the group covers 4 pages, followed (pp. 8-38) 
by keys, descriptions and many half-tones of each species. An 
appendix of “References” — which are “to plants and not to 
authorities for names of plants”—occupies pp. 39-41; but the 
several paragraphs would perhaps be more convenient for con¬ 
sultation had they been placed immediately after the names in the 
text after the usual method. 
The Pear Blight in California has been noticed by Newton 
B. Pierce (Science, N. S. 16:193. 1 Aug. 1902) in 1899 as a 
normal epidemic form of Spring development and has now spread 
to a large percentage of the leading pear-growing districts of 
