CLINTON: NORTH AMERICAN USTILAGINEAE. 
405 
Mexico on Luzula sp., but a specimen sent the writer had the host 
changed to Juncus. This species has the sori in the ovaries, but so 
does C. Junci sometimes. The writer is inclined to believe they are 
identical, though the specimen examined of the former was very 
poor. 
Cintractia axicola (Berk.) Cornu. 
Ustilago axicola Berk., Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., n, 9 : 200. 1852. 
Ustilago axicola Berk, var., Grev., 3 : 59. 1874. 
Ustilago Fimbristylis Thm., Bull. Torr. Bot. Club, 6 : 95. 1876. 
Cintractia axicola Cornu, Ann. Sci. Nat., Bot., vi, 15 : 279. 1883. 
Exsiccati: Cintractia axicola (Berk.) Cornu, on Fimbristylis autumnalis, 
Seym. & Earle, Econ. Fungi, 530, on Fimbristylis sp., Syd., Ust., 219. 
Sori usually at base of peduncles or pedicles, rarely in the spike- 
lets, usually roundish, about 3-5 mm. in diameter, at first with 
whitish false membrane covering the olive black agglutinated spore 
mass, but this soon disappearing and spores becoming less firmly 
agglutinated ; sterile cells usually indefinite through gelatinization 
of wall, cellular or somewhat thread shaped, with little or no lumen ; 
spores reddish brown, compressed laterally and so appearing oblong 
to subcircular according to view, often somewhat angled, smooth, 
12-18 fx in length. 
Hosts: Fimbristylis autumnalis , Ala. (type U. axicola Berk, 
var.), Miss., Ya. (type XI. Fimbristylis) ; F. dipluylla, Porto Rico; 
F. Holvmyana , x Mex ; Fimbristylis sp., Costa Rica, Cuba, Jamaica, 
Mex., San Dom. (type). 
Cooke (Grev.-, 19 : 53) states that the San Domingo specimen dif¬ 
fers from the American and is an Ustilago. The writer has not 
seen the specimen from San Domingo, but the Cuban specimens in 
the Wright collection at Harvard university are of the Cintractia 
type. The specimens examined from the United States may have 
spores that average smaller than those examined from Cuba and 
Mexico but are otherwise the same. There seems to be no reason 
# 
1 This specimen, collected by Pringle, does not agree entirely with the type 
as the sorus is inclined to involve the entire spikelet, and the spores, 12.5-15 jx, 
are verruculose instead of smooth. The specimen, however, is meager and it 
is best placed here until more is learned from future collections on the same 
host. 
