Medical Officers of the Army of India.
83
I have searched in vain for such spores, both at elevations below and above that
of Simla. A third important difference may be found in the structure of the
fruit bodies, and in the way in which sporidia are formed. A comparison of
Fig. 5, Plate II, representing a section through a teleutospore bed, with de Bary's
figure, as reproduced, for example, in his-text book,1 w i l l a t o n c e r e v e a l t h e s t r i k i n g
differences. Among subsidiary points of difference may be mentioned the form
of the teleutospore beds, which are sometimes long in C. Rhododendri, but
always round in the Himalayan species: the larger size of many of the beds in
the latter: the golden red colour of the teleutospore beds in sporidial formation
in C. Rhododendri against a pure yellow in India: the almost invariable division
of the promycelium into four cells in the Himalayan species, each cell forming
an oval or round sporidium at the end of a long sterigma. These differences
appear to me to be sufficiently great to warrant its separation under a new name,
and I propose calling it Chrysomyxa Himalense.
I will now offer a few remarks with reference to its possible connection with
the æcidia on the Coniferæ occurring here. Of these there are four, namely,
one on Pinus longifolia, one on Pinus excelsa (these two are, I believe, specifi
- c a l l y d i s t i n c t ) , a n d t w o d i s t i n c t s p e c i e s o nP
i c e a M o r i n d a .
2 T h e t w o f i r s t
named are exceedingly common in Simla; one of those on Picea is rare, whilst
the other does not occur in Simla itself, though it is not uncommon at some little
distance from the station. It seemed extremely probable that one or other of
the aecidia on the two species of Pinus, so abundant in the forests where the
Rhododendron is largely and universally attacked with this Chrysomyxa, must
be related to it, although I am aware a different life-history has been disco
- v e r e d f o r
P e r i d e r m i u m P i n i
i n E u r o p e . I r e f e r , o f c o u r s e , t o t h e c o n n e c t i o n w i t h
Coleosporium Senecíonis, Per (Wolff) and Cronartium asclepiadeum (Willd.) on
Vincetoxicum officinale (Cornu). Neither of these teleutospore forms occurs in
Simla, nor indeed any allied form, so far as my observations as yet extend. 3 If
the Indian Æcidia in question are heterœcious, as there is every reason for be
- lieving they are, their teleutospores must be looked for elsewhere. I accord
- i n g l y m a d e f r e q u e n t a t t e m p t s t o e s t a b l i s h a r e l a t i o n s h i p w i t h t h i s C h r y s o m y x a ,
but all my efforts have been in vain. I never obtained any evidence of connec
- tion. I also applied sporidia to the young shoots of Picea Morinda with equally
negative results. The last-mentioned host is not common in Simla, but the few
specimens that occur are surrounded in every direction by Rhododendron trees
bearing the Chrysomyxa, so that if a connection existed the æcidium on
Picea must have been a common instead of a very rare parasite. It is scarcely
possible, therefore, that the last-mentioned Æcidium can be related to the
1 Comparative Morphology and Biology of the Fungi: De Bary, Clarendon Press, page 284.
2 Journal of Asiatic Society of Bengal, Vol. LV, Part II, Nos. 1 and 2, 1886,
3 We have several species of Coleosporium, however, in Simla, but none of them with any apparent
connection.
M2