312 Journal of Agric2iliural Research voi. xiir, No. 6 



curiously enough, although the fungus was widely known under these 

 names, no one appears to have suggested a possible relationship of the 

 fungus under this name with Pseudopeziza medicaginis as had been 

 suggested for the same fungus under the name " Sporonema phacidioides ." 



Under the name " Gloeos porium morianum," by which it was described 

 by Saccardo in 1886 (12), the fungus does not appear to have become 

 widely known. Only a single subsequent reference to an identifica- 

 tion of the fungus by that name (2) has been found. 



Thus far the writer has traced the development of the misconception 

 of Sporonema phacidioides as the conidial stage of Pseudopeziza medi- 

 caginis on alfalfa. This misconception appears to have gone even 

 farther, and to have been responsible for three references to Sporonema 

 on clover {Trijolium pratcnse) as the conidial stage of Pseudopeziza 

 trifolii. The first of these is in a note over the signature of G. Von 

 Niessl appended to No. 2057 of Rabenhorst's Fungi Kuropaei.^ This 

 collection is designated ''Pseudopeziza trifolii (Bemh.) Fckl. St. conidio- 

 phorus." At the end of the note describing this fungus occurs this 

 sentence : 



Das ganze Gebilde entspricht der alten Gattung Sporonema. 



The other references to species of Sporonema on clover are by Jac- 

 zewski (7, 8, 9). In the second reference Sporonema phacidioides is 

 specifically stated as occurring in Russia as the conidial stage of Pseudo- 

 peziza trifolii. 



Since field observation and inoculation experiments both indicate that 

 Sporonema does not occur on clover, it is a matter of interest to know 

 what fungus on this host has been called by that name. Through 

 the kindness of Prof. Thaxter, the writer has been permitted to 

 study a portion of Von Niessl's collection in the Harvard herbarium. 

 The fungus found here appears to be identical with Gloeosporium trifolii 

 Pk. Owing to war conditions, it has not been possible to obtain speci- 

 mens of the fungus which Jaczewski regards as the conidial stage of 

 Pseudopeziza trifolii. For the present the writer can only assume ten- 

 tatively that it is the same fungus that is given under that designation 

 by Von Niessl. Since the general character of Gloeosporium trifolii is 

 not greatly different from that of Sporonema phacidioides , it is not difficult 

 to see why Von Niessl and Jaczewski, holding Sporonema phacidioides 

 as the conidial stage of Pseudopeziza mcdicagiyiis on alfalfa, should have 

 come to regard this species of Gloeosporium as the corresponding conidial 

 stage of Pseudopeziza trifolii on clover. 



MORPHOLOGY 



Mycelium. — The mycelium within the leaf tissue varies greatly in 

 diameter. Many of the lateral branches are very small, while older hy- 

 phae may become greatly swollen. Hyphae are found largely vv^ithin, but 



' Rabenhorst, G. L. fungi EtiROPABi Exsiccati. new ed., cent. 21, no. 2057. Dresdae, 1876. 



