Examination in the fall of 1921 of diseased Lima beans from 

 eastern and central Virginia revealed the presence of the vege- 

 tative cells, asci and ascospores of a yeast which later proved 

 to be the organism responsible for the disease. The yeast proved 

 to be a species of the genus Nematospora which was established 

 by Peglion in 1901, but it differed in certain characters from the 

 species previously described; therefore, the name Nematospora 

 Phaseoli was proposed. 



The disease occurs on the seed in the pod, causing numerous 

 dark, sunken areas on the cotyledons. Infection occurs at any 

 time during development, but the most severe damage results 

 when infection takes place before the seed is half grown. Af- 

 fected seeds vary from one tenth to the normal size. The 

 disease has been found in ten counties in Virginia. The loss 

 from the disease in severe cases amounts to as much as 60 per 

 cent of the crop. 



The organism grows well on beerwort agar and also on vege- 

 table material such as beet, carrot, parsnip, turnip, seed potato 

 and Irish potato. The optimum temperature is about 30 

 degrees C. 



The vegetative stage of the organism is composed of the 

 typical yeast cells but in some cases a mycelium is produced. 

 Asci and ascospores are produced in great numbers in the lesions 

 on the Lima bean seed and also on favorable culture media. 

 The asci are cylindrical with rounded ends, 60-80 x 10 microns; 

 ascospores 8, in two groups of 4, 40-46 x 2.5-3 microns, slender, 

 i-septate, apex acute, base extended into a slender, non-motile 

 whip, which averages about one and one fourth times the spore 

 length. 



After discussion, adjournment followed. 



Marshall A. Howe, 



Secretary. 



Meeting of April 10, 1923 



The meeting of the above date was held at the American 

 Museum of Natural History, beginning at 8:15 P.M. President 

 Richards occupied the chair. Fourteen persons were present. 



The program consisted of an illustrated lecture on "Shade 

 Trees" by Dr. W. A. Murrill. The speaker discussed several 



