380 PROCEEDINGS : BOSTON SOCIETY NATURAL HISTORY. 
Penn.; P. aviculare , Calif.; P. Careyi, Me.; P. erection, Miss.; 
P. Hydropiper, Ala., Conn., Ia. ; P. hydropiperoides , Conn., Miss., 
Vt., Wise.; P. lapathifolium, Conn., D. C., Ill. ; P. lapathifolium , 
var. incarnation , la., Ill.; P. Pennsylvanicum , Ala., Conn., Ia. 
Ill., Kans., Mass., Miss., Mo., Neb., N. H., N. J., N. Y., Ohio, R. I., 
Vt., W. Va.; P. sagittatum, N. Y. ; Polygonum sp., Ill., Mass., 
Mich., Mo., N. Car., N. J., R. I.; Mex. 
This is one of the most common of the smuts. On Polygonum 
Pennsylvanicum, and Polygonum lapathifolium the spores are 
quite similar while on some other hosts, especially those growing in 
moist places, as Polygonum acre, Polygonum hydropiperoides and 
Polygonum sp., (Ell. & Ev., Fungi Col., 42, Seym. & Earle, Econ. 
Fungi, 376 x, Syd., Ust., 258) they are somewhat different and in 
some cases approach so closely to TJstilago anomala as to make it 
difficult to decide to which species they belong. The germination 
of the spores has been described by Schroter and Brefeld. Litera¬ 
ture : 23, 198. 
TJstilago Rumicis (Berk.) Clint, n. sp. 
Ustilago utriculosa var. Rumicis Berk., Grev., 3 : 59. 1874. 
Sori in flowers of the inflorescence and involving the floral axes 
as well, forming purplish dusty spore masses; spores medium to 
rather dark purple, chiefly ovoid to spherical, with more or less 
prominently winged reticulations (chiefly 1 g deep by 1-3 g wide), 
mostly 11-16 g in length. 
Host: Rumex Acetosella, S. Car. (type); R. hastatulus , Ala. 
The South Carolina specimen is in the Curtis herbarium at Har¬ 
vard university under the name Ustilago utriculosa var. Ravenelii. 
This seems to have been only an herbarium name, as no reference 
to this variety has been found in literature. The only published 
reference to an American specimen on the same host is that in 
Berkeley’s Notices of N. A. Fungi, in Grevillea, where he names a 
new variety, Ustilago utriculosa var. Rumicis, and merely gives a 
spore measurement. This probably has reference to the South Car¬ 
olina specimen. Ustilago Kuhneana, as described by botanists, is 
said to attack various parts of the host beside the flowers, though 
of the eight European-specimens examined in different exsiccati all 
occur only in the floral parts. The American specimens, however, 
