420 CONNECTICUT EXPERIMENT STATION REPORT, 1912. 



with that species. No Schweinitzian specimens of Sphaeria 

 radicalis in this country, however, have yet been found which 

 have ascospores, though there is no doubt from the specimen 

 in the conidial stage in the Schweinitzian collection in the 

 Philadelphia Academy of Science that 5\ radicalis refers either to 

 this species or to E. gyrosa. As Shear had opportunity to see 

 certain specimens of 5". radicalis and 5\ gyrosa sent by 

 Schweinitz to European botanists, the writer thought he had 

 found the ascospores of 5\ radicalis to be linear. Recently 

 writing Shear on this point, we received the following letter: 



"The specimens on oak roots collected by Hall in South 

 Carolina which I identified as the typical S. radicalis of 

 Schweinitz were, according to my recollection, compared with 

 authentic specimens of Schweinitz from either Schweinitz's 

 herbarium or Curtis' herbarium at Harvard. This identification 

 was made last winter before my trip to Europe. I have been 

 going over carefully all our slides and specimens to locate the 

 material on which this identification was based. I regret to 

 say that thus far I have been unable to find it. In this same 

 connection I have examined very carefully the material from 

 the Kew herbarium, which consists of an autograph specimen 

 collected by Schweinitz, presumably at Salem, N. C, and sent 

 by him to Hooker. I am surprised to find, on examination, 

 that this specimen, though it shows considerable variation in 

 ascospore measurements, does not appear to agree with the 

 long, slender form of ascospores found in the specimen on oak 

 roots which I sent you from Hall's collection at Clemson 

 College, S. C. The measurements, as they have just been made 

 from a slide from the Kew specimen, range mostly from 6.3-8.6 

 by 2.8-3.6 ^. I think it is still possible that all sorts of inter- 

 mediate forms and sizes of spores will be found in the South 

 connecting the long and short-spored specimens." 



Writing to the Kew herbarium for information concerning 

 the specimen mentioned by Shear, which seems to be the only 

 Schweinitzian ascospore specimen of Sphaeria radicalis yet 

 reported, we received a letter from Assistant Director Hill, with 

 the following notes made by E. M. Wakefield: "The specimen 

 referred to by Shear appears to be one which bears simply a 

 pasted-on rough paper label with the name 'Sphaeria radicalis' 

 in ink. On the authority of Mr. C. G. Lloyd, who is working 



