396 PROCEEDINGS: BOSTON SOCIETY NATURAL HISTORY. 
placed under Ustilago. The spores closely resemble those of that 
genus while the hard agglutinated sorus relates it to Cintractia. 
The spores are evidently discharged by the absorption of water, the 
consequent gelatinization and swelling of the fungous threads and 
spore membrane oosing the ripe spores out on the surface of the 
sorus. Upon drying the sorus is thus covered with a black coating 
of spores that gradually wears off. The manner of development of 
the spores in the so called chambers whose walls are formed by a 
mixture of the mycelium and the plant tissues needs further study, 
as Beck had only ordinary dried material to examine. 
Melanopsichium Austro-Americanum (Speg.) Beck. 
Ustilago austro-americana Speg., Fung. Argent., pug. 4, n. 45. 1881. 
Melanopsichium austro-americanum Beck, Ann. K. Iv. Natur. Hofmus. 
Wien, 9 : 122. 1894. 
Exsiccati: Melanopsichium Austro-Americanum (Speg.) Beck, on Poly¬ 
gonum lapathifolium, Seym. & Earle, Econ. Fungi, Clinton Ust. Supp., C 35; 
Ustilago Austro-Americana Speg., on Polygonum incarnatum, Rab.-Wint., 
Fungi Eur., 3501, Ell. & Ev., N. A. Fungi, 2262, on Polygonum lapathi- 
folium , Seym & Earle, Econ. Fungi, 372, on Polygonum (?) Virginianum , 
Roum., Fungi Sel., 4416, Syd., Ust., 101. 
Sori chiefly in the inflorescence, forming more or less irregularly 
lobed masses arising from the fusion of the infected parts, less com¬ 
monly on the leaves and then smaller, usually prominent, 2 or 3 
mm. to 2 cm. in length, internally sometvhat nodular or tubercular, 
forming a hard, firmly agglutinated, black spore mass mixed with 
plant tissues; spores oblong to chiefly subspherical, often somewhat 
irregular, with more or less evident gelatinous envelope, usually 
rather prominently echinulate, chiefly 10-14 g, most elongated rarely 
17 /a, in length. 
Hosts : Polygonum aviculare, Calif.; P. Hydropiper , D. C., Mo-; 
P. lapathifolium , Calif., Ill.; P. lapathifolium var. incarnatum , la., 
Ill., Mo.; P. Pennsylvanicum , Ill., Ivans., Mo., 1ST. J., N. Y.; P. 
? Virginianum , Mo.; Polygonum sp., D. C., Ia., Mo. (type 31. austro- 
americanum), N. J., Tex. 
This was first described from South America where it apparently 
grows more commonly on the leaves than it does here. The writer 
has not seen specimen§ from there but sent a specimen to Spegazzini 
who pronounced it the same as his species. In this country the 
