34 



Mycologia 



Broome. However, there are no specimens in Broome's herbarium 

 at the British Museum, — so I am sending you a slide of this one, as 

 it seems probably authentic." 



In addition to the slides showing asci and spores, fragments of 

 leaf sheaths showing perithecia were also sent to us, and a careful 

 comparison of these specimens with material of the take-all or- 

 ganism was made. 



The perithecia of S. cariceti. as shown in the type specimen in 

 Berkeley's herbarium have been examined and found to agree 

 closely in size, shape, and other characters with those of our own 

 organism. Their position on the host is also the same. More- 

 over, the asci and spores in the specimen from Cooke's herbarium 

 are indistinguishable from those of the fungus of take-all. (Text 

 Figure lb.) There is, in fact, no point of evident difference be- 

 tween our organism and 5\ cariceti as seen on Air a caespitosa in 

 these two specimens at Kew. Since asci and spores can not be 

 obtained from the type specimen, it is not possible by a comparison 

 of specimens alone to demonstrate that the material in the her- 

 barium of Cooke is unquestionably >S\ cariceti. However, it agrees 

 completely with the rather brief original description of the species 

 given by Berkeley and Broome. 8 Fortunately, moreover, accom- 

 panying the description, drawings of an ascus and two spores are 

 given which agree well in size and shape with the material in the 

 herbarium of Cooke and with our own material of the take-all 

 fungus. The spores as drawn are non-septate, but the arrange- 

 ment of the guttulae indicates that at maturity a septation corre- 

 sponding to that in the Cooke material would occur. 



Since the perithecium of S. cariceti as seen in the type specimen 

 is characteristic and agrees completely with that of the take-all 

 organism, there would be on this basis alone considerable justifica- 

 tion for regarding the two as the same. When as corroborative 

 evidence the available data concerning the asci and spores are con- 

 sidered the identity of the two forms does not admit of a reason- 

 able doubt. 



The perithecia of the fungus from Iris foetid is sima labeled 

 S. eucrypta B. & Br. differ in several essential respects from those 



3 Berkeley, M. J., and Broome, C. E. Notices of British Fungi. Ann. and 

 Mag. Nat. Hist. 7: ser. 3. 455. PI. 17, fig. 35. 1861. 



