Fungus of Lolium. 255 



of the species of Lolium, including Lolium peretun , /.., Imt found 

 that tlie hyphae were absent in all cases. It was suggested that pos- 

 sibly Woronin's '* Taunielro«,rgen " and the fungus of Darnel hovG 

 somo relation one to the other, on account of their somewhat simi- 

 lar physiological action. At the same time, however, he called 

 attention to the many differences which might be cited between the 

 two. 



Hiltner's (5) attention was drawn to the work of Ilanausek and 

 Xestler, and in 1899 he published a paper dealing: witli tlie func- 

 tion of the fungus found associated with Darnel. Tliis he stated ttr 

 be of a nitrogen fixing nature, and proceeded to verify the state- 

 ment by experiment. He recorded that L.olium temulentum 'jfrew 

 equally well in nitrogen-free and nitrogen-containing sand, and he 

 was thus drawn to tlie conclusion that the above statement as regards 

 its function is the correct one. The metliods employed by Hiltnor 

 are open to criticism, and I shall refer to liis work in a later part 

 of this paper (pp. 284-285.) 



Micheletti (6), 1901, worked mainly on the chemical side of the 

 question. A paper, ''The Seed Fungus of Lolium temulentum, L., 

 the Darnel," by Freeman (7), appeared in 1902. Freeman found 

 that samples of Darnel from various localities showed wide differ- 

 ences in the proportion between fungal containing and fungal free 

 seeds. He correlated the absence of the fungus with certain morpho- 

 logical characteristics, viz., colour and shape, although he indi- 

 cated that in a few cases this correlation was not evident. Perhaps 

 the chief point in his paper deals witli the mode of entry of the 

 fungus into the embryo. He described an isolated patch of hyphae 

 at the base of the groove on the inner side of the grain. This 

 patch he called the " infection layer " and he stated that it was 

 from this layer that infection of the embryo took place. The course 

 of the liyphae, according to his observations, was always intercel- 

 lular, and penetration of the aleurone layer by the infecting 

 hyphae took place at the junction of several cells. In all grains 

 examined where hyphae were present in tlie embryo they were also 

 found in the grain, and all the evidence was negative as to the p(»s- 

 sibility of their presence in the embryo and absence in the grain. 

 However,, he cited one doubtful case as regards this converse state- 

 ment. 



The distribution of the fungus in the growing i)lant was noted, 

 and in dealing with the inflorescence and ovary lie descrilx'd in 

 detail the development of his " infection layer." 



