172 Journal of Mycology [Vol. 8 
Relhan’s first notice of Puccinia fusca. It is in the Gentleman’s 
Magazine, 1793: 414. 
“King's Coll. Cam., May 15. 
Mr. Urban : 
The conjurer of Chalgrave’s Fern having excited the curiosity of the 
public, I shall be glad through your means to inform your botanical 
dorrespondents that I have found the plant this spring, in great abun¬ 
dance, in Madingley Wood, near Cambridge. It appears to me, from 
repeated examinations, in all its different stages, to be Aecidium Fuscum. 
Lin. Syst. Nat. Gmelin, p. 1473. It is parasitical on the leaves and some¬ 
times, though rarely, on the petals of Anemone Nemorosa. I shall, in 
a few days, publish a description of it in a third supplement to my “Flora 
Cantabrigiensis,” and intend, in a short time, in a separate publication, 
to give a full history of the plant, illustrated by colored plates. In the 
meantime, I shall be happy, upon application being made to me by letter, 
to send twenty specimens of the plant, if so many of your correspondents 
inform me that they will be acceptable; having ever esteemed the giving 
away of a curious plant the second pleasure to the original discovery. 
Yours, &c., 
R. Relhan.” 
The description was published in 1793. Flora Cantab. 3rd. 
Supp.: 36. not as a new species, but as Aecidium fuscum 1791. 
Lin. Syst. Nat. 1473. where it is given as Aecidium fuscum Pers. 
Mr. Relhan does not appear to' have carried out his intention as 
to the separate publication, but he did contribute the specimens 
for the colored plate in Sowerby, English Fungi, 1797, pi. 53. 
This plate shows a leaf with Puccinia fusca, and a plant and leaf 
with aecidium. The Puccinia is without doubt the same as 
Persoon’s 1791 Aecidium fuscum, otherwise he would have men¬ 
tioned it in his review of Lycoperdon Anemones Poult. He says : 
(1796. Neue Ann. d. Bot. Stuck 13:43.) “Uebrigens habe ich 
diese Art schon vor der Erscheinung der Transactions dem Herrn 
Hof rath Gmelin zu der neuen Ausgabe des Linneischen Natur- 
systems unter dem Namen: Aecidium Anemones, mitgetheilt. 
Das von Hrn. Relhan (Sup. FI. cantabrig.) hierhin gerechnete 
Aecidium fuscum , ist eine ganz andere Art, und vermuthlich eine 
uredo.” 
If this view is correct, Persoon should have the credit of it 
and the name should be Puccinia fusca (Pers.) especially as 
Relhan did not, evidently, separate the aecidium and puccinia, 
and Persoon did. 
Dr. Winter considered Aecidium Anemones Pers. (Aecidium 
leucospermum DC.) to be a state of Puccinia fusca. This is prob¬ 
ably erroneous. H. T. Soppit made some cultures which led him 
to the conclusion that this aecidium was an Endophyllum. His 
experiments, as reported, (1893. Jour, of Bot. : 273) are not con¬ 
clusive, and need repeating. 
