222 ASCOMYCETES. 



Dilophia. 



The genus is parasitic aud causes swellings. The perithecia 

 remain permanently embedded in the tissues of the host-plant. 

 The asci contain eight transparent, thread-like, finely-pointed, 

 multicellular spores. 



Dilophia graminis Sacc. (Britain). This causes deformity of 

 the leaves and inflorescences of wild grasses ; also of rye in 

 France, and wheat in England and Switzerland. Fuckel assumes 

 a relationship between this species and Dilophospora graminis 

 Desm., but this we regard as doubtful. 



Ophiobolus. 



Perithecia scattered and almost spherical ; they contain para- 

 physes and eight-spored asci. The spores are hyaline or 

 yellowish, thread-like, and unicellular or septate. The fungus 

 is minute and inhabits stems and haulms. 



Ophiobolus graminis Sacc. was indicated by Prillieux, 

 Delacroix, and Schribaux as the cause of a cereal disease in 

 France. The cereals attacked broke over very easily near the 

 ground ; they continued to develop, but produced ears of a poor 

 quality, and often quite withered. The disease was designated 

 " maladie du pied des cereales," and described in Jour. cl'Agric. 

 practiquc, 1892; also under the name " la maladie du pied du 

 ble " in Travaux du labor, de patJiol. vigetale inst. Ojgronom., 

 1890. The perithecia have a curved lateral beak; the asci 

 contain eight long, spindle-shaped, multiseptate spores. 



Frank also records this disease as injurious to wheat in 

 Germany in 1894. 



GNOMONIEAE. 



Gnomonia. 



Perithecia without a stroma, and generally remaining 

 embedded in the host-tissues, with only a beaked opening pro- 

 jecting ; they contain no paraphyses. The asci have a thickened 

 apex with a fine central pore. The hyaline spores consist of 

 from one to four cells. 



Gnomonia erythrostoma Auersw.^ This is the cause of an 



'Frank, Ber. d. deiUsch. botan. Ges., 1886 aaid 1887; also Zeifschrifi /. 

 Pflanzeiihrankheiten, 1891. 



