CLINTON: NORTH AMERICAN USTILAGINEAE. 
397 
smut appears to be most common in the Mississippi valley. It has 
a number of characters, e. g., the hygrophilous manner of shedding 
its spores and the gelatinous spore envelope, that relate it to Cin¬ 
tractia externa. The germination has been reported by Norton. 
Literature: 12, 129. 
Cintractia Cornu. 
Ann. Sci. Nat., Bot., vi, 15: 279. 1883. 
(Anthracoidea Bref., Unters. Gesamint. Myk., 12: 144. 1895.) 
Type: Cintractia axicola (Berk.) Cornu. 
Host: Cyperus sp. 1 N. Amer. 
Sori on various parts of the host, often in the ovaries, forming a 
black usually rather firmly agglutinated spore mass / spores simple , 
usually of medium or large size and of reddish black color, formed 
in a centripetal manner from a fertile stroma usually surrounding a 
central columella of plant tissues, often freed from sorus by absorp¬ 
tion of water; germination apparently of a modified Ustilago type. 
Cintractia has been considered by some botanists as not distinct 
from Ustilago. Brefeld’s Anthracoidea is based on a peculiarity of 
germination of the two species, (7. Caricis and (7. subinclusa, the pro¬ 
mycelium at first having two cells, each of which is provided with a 
sort of sterigmatum from which the sporidia are developed. The 
germination of very few species of Cintractia is known, but that of 
C. Junci is not of this type. It does not seem proper to the writer 
to consider Anthracoidea distinct from Cintractia, since the above 
two species are very similar to the other species included here. The 
species of Cintractia usually have a firmly agglutinated sorus and 
develop the spores centripetally from a fertile stroma. The spores 
have a peculiar, usually reddish black color, by which they can be 
partially distinguished. Certain species of Ustilago, as JJ. Crus- 
galli , and of Sphacelotheca, as S. Sorghi , have been placed under 
this genus because of a very similar method of spore development, 
but they are easily distinguished by the character of their spores 
and of the sorus. The Cintractias occur almost entirely on the 
Cyperaceae. Saccardo gives 17 species, not all of which, however, 
belong here ; 13 species and 1 variety are described in this paper. 
2 It is probable that this was really Fimbristylis. 
