39 



A CLOVER FUNGUS. 

 [Sclerotmia trifolioriLviy Erikss.; Sclerotijiia ciborioides. Fries.) 



Fig. I. 



I, Clover leaf attacked by the fungus. 2. Clover stem with leaves killed, showing 

 a Sclerotiiim at the end. 3. Sclerotia. 4. Sclerotium^ with funnel-shaped apothecium 

 magnified. 



The plants of several species of clover have suffered in 

 various parts of the country this season from a disorder 

 which was at first considered to be the ordinary clover 

 " sickness," caused, as some hold, by the too frequent growth 

 of clover in the same field, and, according to others, by the 

 stem eel worm {Tyle7ichus devastatrix). Careful examination, 

 however, disclosed characteristics which differed from those 

 of ordinary clover " sickness," and were evidently attributable 

 to the attack of a fungus which had not previously been 

 noted in England. Mr. Carruthers, the Consulting Botanist 

 of the Royal Agricultural Society, reported that this fungus 

 is known as Sclerotinia trifolioruMy that he had found it 



