57 



above in respect of wheat and barley this year. Dr. Lopriore 

 records experiments made upon a horse, rabbits, rats, dogs, and 

 chickens with Cladosporium herbarum, and[states that no injury 

 or discomfort was occasioned to them from taking it in quantities.* 



Cladosporium herbarium was supposed to be wholly sapro- 

 phytic, living only upon dead, that is, decaying matter. 

 Mr. Cooke says it is found "on all sorts of decaying sub- 

 stacces."f Mr. Plowright, in the communication above 

 referred to says, that "until recently the Cladosporium 

 was regarded as a saprophyte, but recent investigations 

 show me that it can also exist as a true parasite." Sorauer 

 states that it destroys and feeds on plant tissues, that it 

 is, in fact, parasitic as well as saprophytic. He adds it is 

 mostly saprophytic and is seec- upon withered and withering 

 parts of plants; also that it is probable that the fungus is 

 first of all supported as a saprophyte, independently of the 

 living plant, before it is in a position to attack it and live 

 upon it. J This is precisely the case of the Cladosporium 

 herbarum upon the barley grains. First, it is supported on the 

 withered and withering stamens, and then on the living tissues. 

 Sorauer adds, that after a long period of existence upon dead 

 substances, when it comes in contact with living organisms, it 

 rapidly penetrates and destroys them. This is exactly the action 

 of the tomato fungus Cladosporium lycopersici, which is first 

 seen upon the withering and decaying pistils, being then sapro- 

 phytic, and afterwards is parasitic on and most destructive to 

 the tomato fruit. 



The life history of Cladosporium herbarum is somewhat 

 intricate. De Bary groups it with the family Ascomycetes, 

 though he says " there are forms which strongly resemble the 

 members of the development of some well-known species, 

 some even exhibiting the same comparatively minute dis- 

 tinctions, but in which the formation of an ascocarp such as 

 belongs to the particular development, has never been 

 observed, while at the same time there is no reason for 

 considering that they belong to any group outside the 

 Ascomycetes. We are compelled by this condition of our 

 knowledge to regard these isolated forms as homologous with 

 those which are like them, and the positions of which are 

 known in the course of development of other species, and to 

 call them accordingly spermogonia, conidiophores, pycnidia, 

 or the like." De Bary gives a list of these forms, among 

 which is Cladosporium, adding: "These forms are for the 

 present arranged with the Ascomycetes because from what 

 we know of them they appear to have more connexion with 



* Deutsche Landwirtschaftliche Presse, xix. Jahrgang, No. 89. 

 t Cooke'* Handbook of British Fungi, p. 582. 



I Die Schaden der einheimischen Kulturpflanzen, von Dr. Paul Sorauer, 1888. 

 Comparative Morphology and Biology of the Fungi, Mycetoioa, and Bacteria, 

 by A. de Bary, pp. 252-3. 



I 74144. E 



