EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETINS. 655 



into the genus Rhabdospora. Thus in this classification the limits of 

 Rhabdospora are circumscribed, and the old distinction emphasized by 

 AUescher (1901). The occurrence on stems as contrasted with Sep- 

 torias' occurrence on leaves, is discarded. Recent work on the Sphaerop- 

 sidales has proved the highly artificial character of this distinction. 

 (Hedgcock, 1904, Harter, 1914). 



The writer is wholly in accord with revisions of old genera when such 

 revisions are based upon comparative morphological work with adequate 

 materials. Adequate materials must be taken to mean fresh material 

 from the host and from cultures rather than the fragmentary, dry ma- 

 terial from exsiccati. Hand sections from their very meagerness and 

 uncertainty cannot be relied upon. Without, at present, going into the 

 merits of the case, this paper records the strong diff'erence of morphology 

 in Septoria lycopersici from that found in certain other Septorias, (Po- 

 tebnia, 1910; Diedicke, 1912; and others). 



If the name Septoria is to be applied to forms having pseiidopycnidia, 

 then a new genus must be provided for the tomato organism. At pres- 

 ent more than 25 Septorias are being investigated in a similar manner 

 to that described in this organism, and decision is withheld pending 

 these studies. Accordingly the old genus name is retained. 



The Species Name: 



Spegazzini (1882)^ first found the fungus in Argentina, South Amer- 

 ica. The Italian investigators noted a discrepancy in the description as 

 applied to the Italian form, for Briosi and Cavara (1889) in their de- 

 scription of the fungus, state: "The leaves of the tomato attacked by 

 this fungus show very numerous roundish or oblong spots, yellowish or 

 ash colored with a thin darker margin. Perithecia appear on the upper 

 surface. There also are found some on the lower surface of the leaf." 

 ''The perithecia are immersed in the tissue of the leaf, and have globose 

 form, sometimes somewhat depressed, and have a parenchymatous wall, 

 thin and olivaceous in color, and possess a broad ostiole. The spores es- 

 cape in an agglutinated mass, and are of various lengths." (On the ac- 

 companying drawing the spore measurements are given as 40-120 x 2-3 

 microns). 



"This parasite causes great injury, and attacks, according to Pas- 

 serini, not only the leaves but also the stem and fruits. Furthermore, 

 the characters which it showed in our specimens distinguished it some- 

 what from those indicated by Spegazzini. It does not form, as the 

 author says, great spots which occupy almost the whole blade, nor are 

 the perithecia scattered and mostly hyphophyllous and lenticular or 

 hemispheric. Whence Passerini observed justly in his recent note, 'If 

 it is not a species entirely distinct from Septoria lycopersici Speg., our 

 form would at least be a form or local variety, varying from it by ex- 

 ternal characters.' " 



In view of these observations, Briosi and Cavara named the leaf-spot 

 in their locality, Sept. lycopersici var. Europaea. 



"Spegazzini's description as given in Saccardo III, p. 535, is as follows : 

 Maculis magnis saepe totum folium occupantibus, sordide fuscoeinerescentibus, sublnde- 

 terminatis ; peritheciis sparsis saeplus hypophyllis, lenticular-hemisphaericis, prominuUs, 

 atris, membranaceis, contextu parenchymatico, olivaceo ; sporulis bacillari-cylindracels, bacil- 

 ari-subclavulatis majusculis, 70-110-3, 3-plurlseptati3, utrlnque obtusiuscule attenuato- 

 rotundatis, hyalinis. Hab. in foliis languidis Solani Lycopersici in hortis, Boca del Riachuelo 

 Argentinae. 



