126 Report oF THD BOTANIST OF THD 
upon seedling beds and old neglected beds, as well as upon vol- 
unteer asparagus, on Long Island about the first of June. In the 
above section where ridging is practiced this stage is rarely seen 
on the cutting beds, but as seeding beds and neglected beds are 
always plentiful there is an abundance of the spring form. 
In this first stage the spores are formed in cup-shaped pus- 
tules. These pustules or cups are grouped in clusters; hence 
the name of “cluster-cup.” Examination with a lens shows 
that the cups are often of two kinds, associated together. Those 
of one form are called spermogonia, while the others, in which 
the spores are borne in bead-like chains, are called eecidia (See 
Plate X, Fig. 2, a and 6). These cups are frequently arranged 
in oval and spindle-shaped groups upon the stem as shown in 
Fig. 1, Plate X, but nearly the same shapes are assumed by the 
other stages of the rust, hence this cannot be given as a definite 
characteristic. The cups never show as rifts or slits as do the 
later stages. At first they are greenish-yellow in color, but as 
they mature they change to an orange-yellow. Sometimes the 
cluster of cups shows only watery pustules; these are the sper- 
mogonia. In June, 1900, this stage was more prevalent on Pal- 
metto seedling beds than on any other variety. 
Uredo stage—The second form, commonly called the “sum- 
mer” stage and “red-rust ” stage, is the one usually first noticed 
by growers. It is in this stage of growth that the rust increases 
and spreads most rapidly, and apparently does the greatest 
amount of damage. In this form the epidermis, or skin, of the 
asparagus appears to be covered with slits and rifts from which 
red granules or spores are exuding. These rifts are often 
grouped in oval and elliptical clusters on the stems, as in the 
first stage; but, instead of being cup-shaped pustules, they al- 
ways occur as slits in the bark. It is this stage that gives the 
asparagus fields their peculiar brown color in such a short in- 
terval of time, and coats machinery and workmen with a red 
dust. The spores are one-celled, smooth, rather thin-walled and 
of a reddish-brown color (see Fig. 3, wu, Plate XI). 
