CORTICIUMS CAUSING PELLICULARIA DISEASE OF 
THE COFFEE PLANT, HYPOCHNOSE OF 
POMACEOUS FRUITS, AND 
RHIZOCTONIA DISEASE! 
EDWARD ANGUS BURT 
Mycologist and Librarian to the Missouri Botanical Garden 
Associate Professor in the Henry Shaw School of Botany of 
Washington University 
Last year Professor F. L. Stevens sent to the author speci- 
mens of coffee branches collected at Mayaguez, Porto Rico, 
August, 1915, which were infested with the Pellicularia 
fungus, and requested that study be made to determine 
whether this fungus is not one of the Thelephoraceae. In 
compliance with this request, preparations were made from 
the material, which finally afforded simple basidia bearing 
hyaline, even spores 12X4 и, flattened on one side. This 
fungus is a Corticiwm with habit of growth and structure 
greatly resembling the Hypochnus ochroleucus Noack which 
Dr. Stevens studied in 1907. 
Upon looking up the literature of the Pellicularia fungus 
complications developed as follows: 
1. Pellicularia koleroga was published by M. C. Cooke, 
in 1876, as a hyphomycete having solitary, globose, echinu- 
late spores situated here and there along the sides of the 
hyphae. In the article in Popular Science Review 15: 164— 
165. 1876, Cooke expresses doubt as to whether the globose 
bodies are spores, because they do not become detached from 
the hyphae, and believes that their true nature will have to 
be decided by germination experiments. The material upon 
which Cooke based his species was collected at Mysore, India. 
2. Dr. A. Ernst studied diseases of coffee in Venezuela 
and published a paper in 1878, entitled ‘‘Estudios sobre las 
Deformaciones, Enfermedades y Enemigos del Arbol de Cafe 
in Venezuela,’’ pp. 1-24. Caracas. One of the diseases consid- 
1 Issued May 24, 1918. 
ANN. Mo. Bor. GARD., VoL. 5, 1918 (119) 
