1920] A Little Known Vetch Disease 81 



and V. villosa although V. angiistifolia and V. dasycarpa are very re- 

 sistant to attack. This last-named species has been observed, for two 

 seasons, to grow to maturity practically free from disease although 

 it was intertwined with hairy vetch so severely affected that it failed 

 to form pods. The growing of Vicia dasycarpa, a species with appar- 

 ently all of the good characteristics of hairy vetch but which matures 

 a little earlier, instead of V. villosa, gives promise, therefore, of being 

 the most satisfactory way of combatting this disease. 



General Considerations 



Attention was called, as has been stated, by Atkinson and Edger- 

 to]i in their preliminary report, to two characters possessed by the 

 vetch organism which inclined them to believe that it was related to 

 Corticium. These characters were the simultaneous formation of 

 several spores from a basidium and the germination of these spores 

 by budding. No special significance was attached by these investiga- 

 tors to the observation that the spores were sessile and that new spores 

 were formed in place of those which had fallen away, although the 

 presence of sterigmata and of a definite number of spores are known 

 to be characters commonly present among the Basidiomycetes. Germ- 

 ination by budding appears to be not uncommon however, in both 

 Hemibasidii and Eubasidii. Whatever may be said of these diagnostic 

 characters, they should not be regarded as of as much importance in 

 determining whether or not the organism is an Hymenomycete as the 

 multinucleate character of the mycelium, conidia and conidiophores, 

 a phenomenon not known among the basidium-bearing fungi. Because 

 of this multinucleate condition, the organism is certainly not to be re- 

 garded as a member of the great group of fungi, Basidiomycetes. 



Several characters, including the gross appearance of the spots, 

 the pale pink color of the spores in mass, the structure and type of 

 development of the acervultis, the presence of setae, the formation of 

 appresoria when conidia germinate on the host, and germination of 

 the type shown in Figs. 3 and 5, suggest its relationship to the form 

 genus Colletotrichum. The conidia in the anthracnoses are borne 

 singly at the end of the conidiophore whereas the vetch organism 

 forms a number simultaneously. Some of the anthracnoses in cul- 

 ture, because of the more or less glutinous nature of the conidia, are 

 known to give the hyphomycetous appearance shown in Figs. 6, 9, 

 and 10, Furthermore, none of the anthracnoses normally bud, as 



