145 
on the manipulative methods of the experimenters, as Eriksson 
has quite unwittingly demonstrated again and again. In this 
way the overwhelming number of “ species’ now described can 
be slowly reduced to a more manageable compass. But this 
must not be done from mere book descriptions 
If, in addition, investigators would consent to adopt the 
simple plan of ranging ‘‘ biologic ’’ forms or races under a common 
head without confusing the issue by adopting the common 
title as a name also of one of the subordinate forms, the vast 
of names would be brought more and more within the 
limits of comprehension. 
SPECIES TO BE TRANSFERRED TO HYALODIDYMAE. 
947. Phoma Gladioli, Sacc. 
Sphaeropsis Gladioli, Cooke, in Grevill. 1883, xii. 23. 
Macrophoma Gladioli, Berl. & Vogl. Syll. Addit. p. 311. 
‘Annie: GuLaDIOLI, Trav. & Spess. in Bolet. Soc. Brot. 
1910, xxv. 180, pl. 3, f. 20. Sace. Syll. xxii. 1027. 
? Phoma conimbricensis, Trav. & Spess. ibid. p. 176, pl. 2, 
“Spats often roundish, about 4-5 mm. diam., bleached or 
pallid. Pycnidia grouped, often in circles, globose- depressed, 
130-150 uw diam., blackish, covered by t the epidermis, then 
erumpent, pierced at the apex by a pore; texture thin, plectenchy- 
matous, honey-coloured or darker. Spores cylindric- oblong, at 
length thinly 1-septate, not or faintly constricted, often slightly 
curved, granular within, colourless, 15-18 x 4-5-6. (Fig. 5a.) 
On leaves of Gladiolus , South Carolina (Ravenel, no. 2956 !). 
The greater part of the spores in Ravenel’s specimens are 
eseptate, but there is noticeable a slight constriction and bending 
of many spores, which serves as an omen of the true state of 
things, and here, as usual in such cases, persistent search reveals 
a number of them which are l-septate. Moreover the texture 
of the pyenidium is that characteristic of Ascochyta. Cooke 
wrongly gives the size of the spores as 20 x 5. There can be 
no doubt that Phoma Giladioli, (Cke.) Sacc. is the same fungus as 
Ascochyta Gladioli, Trav. & Spess., although those authors give 
‘the size of their spores as being 12-15 x 2-5-3y. They also 
record (I.c.) a fungus to which they give the name Phoma conim- 
bricensis, as accompanying the Ascochyta on scapes of Gladiolus 
cardinalis in the Botanic Gardens at Coimbra, Portugal. A com- 
parison of the descriptions, and a knowledge of what is now known 
to take place in many other cases, enables one to presume with 
certainty that Phoma conimbricensis is merely the young state of 
the Ascochyta. It is time that systematists (and pathologists 
also) began to admit more readily that such a sequence of states 
is a quite common phenomenon. When once its existence is 
z 14817 B 
