July 31, 1908] 



SCIENCE 



159 



spots on apple leaves wliicli had been punc- 

 tured with a hot needle. The fungus was 

 later found on dead apple twigs in Morgan- 

 town, "W. Va., almost touching a live branch 

 whose leaves bore spots containing Conio- 

 thyrium fruits. There were but few spotted 

 leaves on the remainder of the tree. Pro- 

 fessor Alwood, in a letter to Dr. Sheldon 

 which the writer was permitted to see, states 

 that the fungus winters over on the fallen 

 leaves. The writer has not so far been able 

 to find fruits of the fungus on fallen leaves 

 during the winter and spring. 



Goniothyrium pirina, then, occurs in spots 

 on living leaves of apple, cherry," quince and 

 pear," and on dead twigs of apple and quince. 

 It is able under certain conditions to produce 

 spots on apple leaves, but nevertheless it is 

 merely a facultative parasite, and probably 

 does not cause the serious defoliation of apple 

 trees in West Virginia, which has been at- 

 tributed to it.^" It seems able to winter over 

 on twigs of apple and quince. 



Since in the field Coryneum foUicolum gave 

 more evidence of being important than Gonio- 

 thyrium pirina, culture work with it was also 

 done. The fungus was grown on the ordinary 

 culture media, and on sterilized twigs of vari- 

 ous kinds, including spruce twigs. On syn- 

 thetic agar the hyphae at first bore conidia 

 singly on short branches, and all the spores 

 grown on agar were long, irregular, and with 

 cells often subdivided, making the spores as 

 many as seven-septate; this corresponds closely 

 to the behavior of Goryneum heyerincMi re- 

 cently reported by Smith. On some of the 

 media cellular, subcarbonaceous structures de- 

 veloped, sometimes becoming flask-shaped with 

 long necks. In August the fungus was found 

 fruiting on a canker on a young apple trunk. 

 Apparently the spores were borne inside sub- 

 carbonaceous pycnidia, but the immaturity of 

 most of the fruits prevented definite deter- 

 mination of this point. A pure culture made 



"Alwood, W. B., Va. Agr. Exp. Sta., Bull. 24: 

 23-40 (1893). 



"^ Jennings, H. S., Tex. Agr. Exp. Sta., Bull. 

 9:26 (1890). 



"Corbett, L. C, W. Va. Agr. Exp. Sta., Bull. 

 66:202 (1900). 



from spores from this canker grew on agar 

 just as did the cultures taken from leaf-spots. 



Some inoculation work with Coryneum 

 foUicolum along the same lines as that with 

 Goniothyrium pirina gave similar results, ex- 

 cept that the Goryneum gave even less evi- 

 dence of vigorous parasitism than did the 

 Goniothyrium. It is not likely, therefore, 

 that it is any more important as a cause of 

 disease. 



Acknowledgments are due to Professor F. 

 0. Stewart, Dr. Pr. Bubak and Dr. G. B. 

 Traverso for sending specimens, to Dr. 0. H. 

 Peck for identification of a specimen of Phyl- 

 losticta, limitata, to Mrs. Flora W. Patterson 

 for determination of a specimen of Goryneum 

 foUicolum, and to Dr. J. L. Sheldon for 

 advice and the use of data and specimens 

 previously obtained by him. 



Carl P. Hartley 



MiNNEAPOus, Minn. 



A CYCAD FROM THE UPPER CRETACEOUS IJST 

 MAVERICK COUNTY, TEXAS 



In the fall of 1905 I found a cycad in the 

 Upper Cretaceous of Texas. The locality was 

 three miles north and one and one half miles 

 west of the station called Paloma, on the 

 Eagle Pass branch of the Southern Pacific 

 Railroad, and about twenty miles south of 

 Spofiord. At this place the Upson clay is 

 exposed on the east side of Sauz Creek, which 

 joins with Cow Creek to form Elm Creek a 

 haK mile to the south. The exposure runs 

 for a quarter mile north and south and is con- 

 siderably cut up by gullies. At the north end 

 the clay was dark and it contained a Badiolites, 

 a small Osirea, an Anomia and Exogyra pon- 

 derosa. This last shell is frequent over the 

 whole exposure. Eight fragments of pre- 

 sumably the same silicified trunk were noted. 

 Three of these matched by their fractures and 

 showed a stem about ten inches wide, flattened 

 considerably, and hollow. These three and 

 one more fragment were all that I could carry, 

 and they have been turned over to a specialist 

 for study. 



The clay containing these fossils has been 

 by Dumble called the Upson clay and is de- 

 scribed in Augustana Library Publications, 



