Medical Officers of the Army of India.
37
placed in water in a growing cell, these teleutospores germinate quickly, each
compartment throwing out a colourless germinal tube or promycelium, the upper
one usually preceding (Figs. 12, 13, 16, and 17, Plate V). Teleutospores are
generally formed about the beginning of August, and are germinable from the
time they are ripe until the following July, but thereafter they are no longer
capable of germination. During August I several times collected old teleuto-
spores from the preceding year's dried-up leaves and new ones from fresh
green leaves, and placed them in growing cells in water under exactly similar
conditions, and whilst the new teleutospores germinated freely, the older ones
refused to do so absolutely. This power of immediate germination of teleuto-
spores may account for the few uredospores formed, as explained in the preced-
ing paper on Æcidium Strobilanthis.
The promycelia are sometimes short curved tubes uniformly granular in
contents, or long straight tubes with the granular protoplasm partly collected at
the ends and partly broken up into narrow septa or beads dividing off long clear
spaces of the tube filled with fluid. Some of these long promycelia measured
0.2 to 0.4. m.m. in length and 5 to 5.5 µ in diameter, whilst the shorter curved
promycelia were somewhat stouter, measuring 6 to 6.5 µ in diameter. The pro-
mycelium of the upper cell emerges from the apex of the spore body, whilst
that of the lower protrudes from a point near the septum (Figs. 12, 13, 16, and 17,
Plate V). The distal ends of the promycelia are divided into four compartments
by transverse septa, and from each of these a sporidium is usually formed at the
end of a short pointed sterigma about 12 µ in length (Figs. 14, 15, Plate V). The
sporidia are oval, pyriform, or slightly kidney-shaped, measuring about 12 X 8 µ
The sporidia germinate in the usual way by throwing out a slender tube. As a
rule secondary sporidia are not formed, but I once saw a secondary sporidium
produced which measured 6 x 5 µ
Conclusion. —In conclusion, I will note briefly the chief differences between the
Himalayan variety of this Æcidium and its European congener. As regards the
mycelium, the only difference consists in the presence of haustoria in the Indian
variety, whilst they are absent in the European form. The spermogonia are some-
what larger in the Indian variety, measuring about 0.187 m.m. in width and depth
against 0.100 to 0.120 m.m. in the European form. The æcidiospores of the
European form measure 20 to 17µ x 16 to 12 µ,w h i l s t i n I n d i a t h e y a r e 1 5 . 6 µX
13.1 µ ; and with these differences there are also differences in the diameters of
the germinal tubes, which are 5 to 6 µ in the European form and 4 µ in the Indian.
The uredo and teleutosporic pustules on European species of Carex are
found on the lower surfaces of the leaves, whilst on the Indian species they
occur on the upper surfaces. As in the case of æcidiospores, the Indian ure-
dospores are smaller, measuring 19.2 to 19.8 µ long by 12.8 to 13.5 µ broad
against 23 x 19 µ in the European form.
The teleutospore beds in the European form are described as in long