SPHAERODERMA 239 



Salmon, who used phenol (carbolic acid), one ounce to one 

 gallon of water, and forty gallons of this solution were applied 

 to a bed 19 feet by 9 feet, with the object of testing its power 

 of killing the sclerotia of Rhizoctonia present in the soil, 

 before planting seakale. The seakale grew up free from 

 disease, and the plants were apparently stimulated in growth, 

 the crop being heavier than in any other of the test beds. 



Massee, Journ. Bot., 46, p. 151 (1908). 

 Prillieux, Malad. des Plantes Agric., 2, p. 144 (1897). 

 Rolfs, Colorado Agric. Bull.^ Nos. 70 and 91. 

 Salmon, Gard. Chron^ July 4, 1908. 



SPHAERODERMA (FCKL.) 



Perithecia globose, not beaked, seated on an arachnoid 

 web of mycelium, ochraceous ; asci 4-8-spored ; spores ellip- 

 soid, large, continuous, coloured. 



Wheat-straw blight. Saccardo and Berlese have described 

 a disease of wheat in Sardinia, which sometimes proves very 

 injurious. It is caused by Sphaeroderma damnosum (Sacc.). 



Attacked plants remain stunted, and the ear is small and 

 does not ripen well, or in some instances the grain is not 

 developed. Near the base of the straw the mycelium causes 

 dark-brown patches to appear, more evident on the lower 

 nodes. A delicate white fluffy mycelium develops between 

 the leaf-sheath and the stem, which finally bears numerous 

 minute, brown, dot-like perithecia. The delicate white 

 mycelium also produces a conidial form of fruit of the Fusa- 

 rium type, more especially during moist, hot weather. 



Ascigerous form. Perithecia golden-yellow, mouth sur- 

 rounded by a fringe of white hairs. Asci subglobose, contain- 

 ing eight olive, lemon-shaped spores, 18-20 x 10-12 /x. 



Conidial form. Minute white tufts with a suggestion of 

 pink, conidia borne in clusters on short branches springing 

 from the tip of a branch of mycelium, fusiform, slightly 

 curved, 3-5-septate, hyaline. 



This parasite has also occurred on oats and barley. 



Saccardo and Berlese, Rivista di Patalogia vegetale, 1895. 



Cranberry rot. This injury is caused by Acanthorhynchus 

 vaccinii (Shear), The injury to the fruit is similar to that 



