Introduction 3 



week I had the most beautiful growth of a Botrytis. I am sending 

 a small specimen of this to you for examination. While the 

 occurrence of Botrytis might be purely coincidence, it occurs 

 with such great abundance in connection with the apothecia and 

 rootstocks that I am inclined to suspect that there might be 

 some connection between the two. If >'Ou can give me any 

 light on the Botrytis as to its identity, the favor will be very 

 greatly appreciated." 



To this Professor Whetzel replied as follows: "I very much 

 doubt that the Botrytis can be a conidial stage of your fungus on 

 wild geranium. Nevertheless this is quite possible, and I shall 

 see what I can make out of it. However, I could come a great 

 deal nearer answering the question if you could get me apothecia 

 of the same fungus from which I could make ascospore cultures. 

 The probability is that cultures from the Botrytis will give only 

 Botrytis.'' 



Since Professor Whetzel seemed doubtful of any connection 

 between the Botrytis and Sclerotinia, it was cultured at The New 

 York Botanical Garden and the connection established. On 

 June 28, 1917 the following report was made to our Cornell 

 associate: "Since writing you we have cultured out the Sclero- 

 tinia on wild geranium and proved beyond the question of a 

 doubt that the Botrytis is the conidial stage of this fungus. 

 Professor Home is here for a time and being interested he offered 

 to culture the fungus. Excellent growth of conidia can be pro- 

 duced from the ascospores in four or five days. I thought >ou 

 might be interested in knowing our results. We will publish a 

 short paper in the near future. I would be glad to send you some 

 of the perfect stage of the fungus but the last time I was out I 

 could find none. It lasts only about a month in the spring. 

 Unless we can decide on the specific name of the Botrytis we will 

 call the fungus Sclerotinia Geranii. According to our rules the 

 specific name of the Botrytis provided it has one would be tenable 

 for the species." 



On Juh- 2, 1917 a letter was received from Professor Whetzel 

 containing the following statements: "I want to congratulate 

 you upon having made the connection between a Botrytis and 

 the Sclerotinia . . . So far as I am aware this is the first authentic 

 case of the connecting up of the Botrytis with the Sclerotinia, and 

 it will be a very important contribution to the general subject." 



Our Cornell associate still seemed doubtful of our results, and 



