It has been definitely known since 1865 that the European barberry is the alternate host of stem rust (Puccinia graminis); yet the exact relation of this shrub to the annual appearance of stem rust of our grains and grasses is not well understood. Tulasne brothers (18) (1847), de Bary (1) (1865) and others rarely described and figured the morphology of teleutosporic germination. They gave little consideration, however, to the questions as to what environmental conditions influence such germination and the production, dissemination, viability and growth of the sporidia—conditions that have a fundamental bearing on serious attacks of stem rust.