Note on the Variations in the Teleutospores of Puccinia Windsoriae

EVERY one who has studied the rusts has observed that the teleutospores are often very irregular in their general shape, number of cells, and the relation of the cells to one another. This fact has frequently been recorded, and is often referred to in books and papers on the Uredineze. In studying the teleutospores of Puccinid windsorice Schw., collected in a scattered maple grove on the "bottom land" bordering a small creek near Lincoln, Neb., March 3I, i898, on Muhlenbergia racemosa B. S. P., I found some more than usually interesting forms, which are shown in the accompanying plate. In-the genus to which this species is referred there are two cells in the teleutospore, as shown in Figs. 2I-26, but a reference to the plate shows one-celled, two-celled, three-celled, four-celled, and five-celled forms. Normally also the two cells lie in the extension of the axis of the pedicel, as in Figs. 2I-23 and 25, but all kinds of departures from the normal may be observed on the plate. Out of 572 spores counted in several mounts from different leaves, the microscope fields being taken at random, I found 27 abnormal spores, or about 434 per cent. On some leaves the proportion of abnormal spores was much higher, and in one cluster of i i spores still holding together in the mount, five had more than two cells. Of the 572 spores referred to above