4 The North American Cup-Fungi 



in the spring of 1919 by previous arrangement came to New- 

 York with an assistant to check up our conclusions for his own 

 personal satisfaction. The work was done in New York since 

 at that time the fungus had not been collected in any other 

 place, and it was desired to make first hand field observations. 

 No difficulty was encountered in collecting the material, and 

 after careful culture work our results were substantiated. 



The importance of this contribution lies in the fact that De 

 Bary (Comparative Morphology and Biology of the Fungi 238. 

 1887.) claimed a connection between Botrytis cinerea and Sclero- 

 tinia Fuckeliana, a claim that could never be substantiated. To 

 use his exact words: "the conidiophores of Sderotinia Fuckeliana 

 were made a species under the name of Botrytis cinerea.'' Neither 

 had any other connection been made between a Sderotinia and 

 a Botrytis, so far as we are aware, until the connection was made 

 in The New York Botanical Garden between Sderotinia Geranii 

 and an unnamed Botrytis. However, when we refer to Sdero- 

 tinia this is used in a broad sense as it was then applied. It is 

 now used in a much more restricted sense. Since the establish- 

 ment of the one connection several others have been made, 

 which will be reported in the proper place. 



Habits and Life History 



As stated in the volume on operculates, very few of those 

 were even suspected of being parasitic in their habits. At the 

 same time the conidial stages are either lacking or obscure and 

 inconspicuous. On the other hand, many of the inoperculates 

 are destructive parasites and in these the conidial stages are often 

 much more highly developed and conspicuous. From these 

 facts we conclude that the high development of the conidial 

 stages in these forms is in some way associated with their para- 

 sitic habits. 



Take as an illustration the species just discussed, Sderotinia 

 Seaveri. In this species the ascigerous stage appears the early 

 part of May, at which time the asci discharge their spores 

 vigorously just about the time young foliage of the host plant 

 begins to appear. The spores germinate on the young leaves 

 producing monilioid spores in great abundance and forming 

 conspicuous blotches on the leaves and inflorescence. The 

 conidia thus constitute the summer or repeating stage, the 

 mycelium passing to the seeds which fall to the ground and carry 



