ENDOPHYLLUM–LIKE RUSTS OF PORTO RICO

Abstract

The writers recently spent a little over two months in Porto Rico, from February 23 to April 26, i9i6, collecting and studying mainly the parasitic fungi. A fairly representative lot of rusts were collected from many localities about the Island. Among these were five aecidioid and one peculiar uredinoid form which, after germination studies, we found to be short-cycled and similar to, if not indeed identical with, the Endophyllums. We wish to acknowledge special obligation to Professor J. C. Arthur, not only for determining all our rust collections after our return, and for making many suggestions in the preparation of the systematic portion of this paper, but also for directing our attention, prior to our journey, to certain unsolved problems, in particular to the urgent need of clues in the case of the unconnected aecidia of Porto Rico. For the preparation of the agar-water medium and for many other courtesies we are much indebted to Plant Pathologist E. W. Brandes and Director May of the Federal Experiment Station, as well as to Dean Garwood, Professor C. E. Hunn and others of the Agricultural College at Mayaguiez. For laboratory facilities and for other freely tendered assistance we are also under great obligations to Mr. J. A. Stevenson, plant pathologist, and to Director Tower, of the Insular Experiment Station at Rio Piedras. After our return from Porto Rico, most of the hosts of our fungi were determined by Director Britton and others of the New York Botanical Garden; the grass hosts by Professor Hitchcock and Mrs. Chase; the ferns by Miss Slosson, to all of whom we desire to acknowledge our great indebtedness. We wish to express our thanks especially to Mr. Percy Wilson of the staff of the New York Botanical Garden, who for several days so generously placed his wide knowledge of West Indian plants entirely at our disposal. Arthur's Uredinales of Porto Rico, based on collections by F. L. Stevens,' which proved so very stimulating in our search, enumerates io aecidium-forms, all of which he at that time supposed to be heter-