THE LIFE HISTORY AND IDENTITY OF 

 " PATELLINA FRAGARIAE," "LEPTO- 

 THYRIUM MACROTHECIUM," AND 

 "PEZIZA OENOTHERAE " 



C. L. Shear and B. O. Dodge 

 (With Plates 8-10 and 5 Text-figures) 



During our studies of the causes of decay and spoilage of 

 small fruits in picking, shipping and marketing a number of fungi 

 have been found which have been only recently or not heretofore 

 reported on fruit. The pathological and economic aspects of 

 these organisms will be treated in a separate paper. We would 

 direct attention here to only one point of distinct pathological 

 significance brought out by this study and that is the importance 

 of a full knowledge of the life history, identity, and synonymy 

 of pathogenic fungi. The conidial form of the organism under 

 consideration here was recently recognized as the cause of disease 

 and decay in strawberries in this country, referred to the form 

 genus Patellina and described as a new species, P. fragariac 

 Stevens and Peterson (1916). Obviously, if this pathogen were 

 really an undescribed species new to this country and restricted 

 to the strawberry, its pathological and economic aspects would 

 be quite different from those of an old and widely distributed 

 organism known to occur on a variety of hosts in three forms, 

 not only in this country, but in Europe and South America, as 

 now proves to be the case. 



The present paper treats of the life history, morphology and 

 taxonomy of this particular fungus which has been found fre- 

 quently by the writers on strawberries and other small fruits and 

 is now shown to occur on a great variety of plants and plant 

 parts. Besides the new information brought out in connection 

 with the interesting life history, morphology and host relations 

 of this organism, there are other facts strikingly illustrated by 



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