SEAVER AND HORNE: STUDIES IN SCLEROTINIA 203 
and rootstocks of those plants infected with Sclerotinia, while 
similar rootstocks from regions where the Sclerotinia was absent 
failed in every case to develop this type of Botrytis. The conidio- 
phores often appeared in dense tufts, these often springing from 
minute black sclerotium-like bodies, although the latter were not 
always evident. Thinking that this fungus might be an omniv- 
orous saprophyte, the rootstocks of other kinds of plants from 
the same region were placed in moist chambers, but failed to pro- 
duce this fungus. From these rough observations it was suspected 
that the Botrytis might have some connection with the Sclerotinia. 
Itwas noted that the ascospores were always in excellent ger- 
minating condition when brought into the laboratory, and it was 
decided to attempt to culture out the fungus. One of us (Horne), 
who happened to be working at the New York Botanical Garden 
at this time, kindly offered to culture the fungus and the following 
experiments were conducted by him. 
CULTURE EXPERIMENTS 
Crude cultures were made by touching the tufts of Botrytis 
spores, as shown in the accompanying plate, on the small roots of 
wild geranium with a sterile needle and then bringing the needle 
into contact with an autoclaved potato plug placed in a test tube. 
A vigorous fungus grew promptly, developing in somewhat the 
same way as Botrytis vulgaris, but readily distinguished from that 
species on detailed examination. A few days later a crude culture 
was made by touching the top of an apothecium of the Sclerotinia 
of wild geranium with a sterile needle and with this inoculating a 
drop of sterile water on a sterilized slide. The Sclerotinia spores 
were abundant and no Botrytis spores were observed in the drop 
on examination with the 16 mm. objective. A transfer was made 
from this drop to a potato plug, as with the Botrytis inoculation. 
After somewhat more than one week, these cultures were examined 
and both were producing the characteristic Botrytis spores and 
microconidia. 
On May 20, pure cultures of the Sclerotinia of wild geranium 
were made as follows: a dried herbarium specimen of the Sclerotinia 
collected in Van Cortlandt Park during the present season was 
moistened by placing a small drop of sterilized water on the upper 
