Fungus of Lolium. 253- 



of the species of Lolium, including Lolium peremie, L., but found 

 that the hyphae Avere absent in all cases. It was suggested that pos- 

 sibly Woionin's " Taunielroggen "' and the fungus of Darnel bore 

 some relation one to the otlier, on account of their somewhat simi- 

 lar iDhysiological action. At the same time, however, he called 

 attention to the many differences which might be cited between the- 

 two. 



Hiltner's (5) attention was drawn to tlie work of Hanausek and 

 Nestler, and in 1899 he pul>lished a paper dealing with the func- 

 tion of the fungus found associated with Darnel. This he stated to 

 be of a nitrogen fixing nature, and proceeded to verify the state- 

 ment by experiment. He recorded that Lolium femuhnfum grew 

 equally well in nitrogen-free and nitrogen-containing sand, and he- 

 was thus drawn to the conclusion that the above statement as regards 

 its function is the correct one. The methods employed by Hiltnor 

 are open to criticism, and I shall refer to his work in a later part 

 of this paper (pp. 284-285.) 



Micheletti (6), 1901, worked mainly on the chemical side of the- 

 question. A paper, " The Seed Fungus of Lolium trmuhntum, L., 

 the Darnel," by Freeman (7), appeared in 1902. Freeman found 

 that samjjles of Darnel from various localities showed wide differ- 

 ences in the proportion between fungal containing and fungal free 

 seeds. He correlated the absence of the fungus with certain morpho- 

 logical characteristics, vi/.. colour and shape, although he indi- 

 cated that in a few cases this coi'relation was not evident. Perhaps 

 the chief point in his paper deals with the mode of entry of the 

 fungus into the embi-yo. He described an isolated patch of hyphae- 

 at the base of the groove on the inner side of the grain. Tins 

 patch he railed the " infection layer " and he stated that it was 

 from this layer tliat infection of the end^ryo took place. The course 

 of the hyphae, according to his observations, was always intercel- 

 lular, and penetration of the aleurone layer by tlie infecting- 

 hyphae took place at the junction of several cells. In all grains 

 examined where hyphae were present in the end>ryo they were also 

 found in the grain, and all the evidence Avas negative as to the pos- 

 silulity of their presence in tlie embryo and absence in the grain. 

 However,, he cited one doubtful case as regards this converse state- 

 ment. 



The disti-ibution of the fungus in the growing plant was noted,, 

 and in dealing Avith the inflorescence and ovary he described in; 

 detail the development of his "infection layer." 



