392 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [JUNE 
apothecia, which the author attributes to Sclerotinia Libertiana. 
It was found possible to infect healthy rape plants with 
either conidia, ascospores, or mycelium, or by sowing the seed 
in a pot of earth containing diseased tissue. Seedlings were 
infected with Botrytis conidia and kept under a bell jar. They 
soon showed the disease as before. The author also cites the 
results obtained by Hamburg (1), who found it possible to 
infect healthy rape plants with ascospores of S. Lidertiana, produc- 
ing the disease with a development of Botrytis conidia, and he 
(Frank) concludes that the distinction of the two species S. 
Libertiana and Fuckeliana on the basis of presence or absence of 
the Botrytis form is impossible. 
De Bary (2) discredits Frank’s conclusions as to the connec- 
tion between S. Libertiana and Botrytis. 
This case seems to be the strongest argument in support of 
the connection between Botrytis and Scl. Libertiana. The writer 
has no personal knowledge of the disease. It should be pointed 
out, however, that Frank's results are really but little different 
from those obtained in the study of the lettuce disease where 
opposite conclusions were reached. The principal evidence in 
favor of the connection between the two forms is based on their 
simultaneous occurrence and the fact that the disease was induced 
in healthy seedlings kept under a bell jar by infection with 
Botrytis conidia, both of which facts apply equally well to the 
lettuce disease as already described. Norare Hamburg’s results 
any more convincing, since the appearance of Botrytis as a sap- 
rophyte on plants attacked by Sclerotinia is no unusual occur- 
rence. The appearance of Sclerotinia (meaning sclerotia capable 
of producing Peziza) upon plants infected with Botrytis conidia 
would have carried great weight, but no such result has bees 
obtained. The writer feels justified in stating in regard to this 
disease, on the testimony of those who have described it, and 
in the light of the similar cases which he has investigated and 
the general study of the species concerned, that no positive 
proof whatever is found herein that Botrytis cinerea and Sclerotima 
Libertiana have any connection with each other. 
