12 BULLETIN 727, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



THE CAUSAL ORGANISM. 

 TAXONOMY. 



The fungus causing anthracnose as it occurred on Lagenaria fruits 

 at Padua, Italy, was described by Passerini (16) in 1868 under the 

 name of Fusarium lagenarium Pass. 



Berkeley (3) in 1871 reported Gloeosporium laeticolor on a ripe 

 cucumber and in 1876 (4) reported Gloeosporia on various hosts, 

 including cucumbers and melons. He suggested that all were trans- 

 ferable from one host to another and that all these fungi might be 

 identical with a fungus on gourd fruits "known to mycologists as 

 Gloeosporium orbiculare Berk." Owing to imperfect description the 

 identity of this fungus is a matter of question. In his 1910 index, 

 Saccardo (42, v. 19) still retains this species. 



In 1880 Roumeguere (41) described this disease as it occurred on 

 muskmelons at Chalons, France. He recognized the fungus as a 

 Gloeosporium, but at first believed it identical with a Fusarium 

 reticulatum Mont, observed on watermelons in 1843, and hence 

 named it Gloeosporium (Fusarium) reticulatum (Mont.) Roum. 

 Later in the year 1880, upon the advice of Saccardo, Roumeguere 

 (40) recognized that Passerini was the first to describe the fungus 

 under consideration and changed the name to Gloeosporium, lagena- 

 rium (Pass.) Sacc. and Roum. He takes no notice of Berkeley's 

 work. 



In 1882 Berkeley and Broome (5) reported a Gloeosporium cucur- 

 bitarum B. and Br. on Cucurbita fruits in Australia. This, Saccardo 

 suggests, may be identical with Gloeosporium lagenarium, and he 

 does not list it in his 1910 index. 



In America in 1885 Ellis and Everhart (15, p. 118) list as Gloeo- 

 sporium lagenarium Pass, a fungus found on gourds, and later 

 Gloeosporium lindemuthianum S. and M. on watermelon rinds. Still 

 later, specimens of Gloeosporium lagenarium (Pass.) var. foliicolum 

 E. and E. upon cucumber, watermelon, and muskmelon leaves were 

 distributed (23). 



Cavara (8, p. 179) at Pavia, Italy, where Passerini first found this 

 fungus, described in 1889 a Colletotrichum oligochaetum Cav., parasitic 

 upon Lagenaria plants. He noted that this fungus differed from the 

 earlier descriptions in that setae were present in the acervuli and the 

 spores were slightly smaller. Saccardo (42, v. 10, p. 469) in 1892 

 gave this form specific rank, but as a result of Halsted's critical 

 examination of exsiccati it now seems certain, however, that Cavara 

 had the same fungus previously described by Passerini and Roume- 

 guere. 



Basing his assumption upon morphological similarity and very 

 meager cross inoculations, Ilalstcd (23) in 1893 concluded that the 

 fungi of bean and watermelon anthracnoses were identical. He 



