A Clover Fungus. 



49 



difficult to spray them efficaciously. The report of the ex- 

 periments carried on at the Provincial Experimental Garden 

 at Ghent in 1892-3 has just been received, and in this there 

 is an account of the treatment of clover plants affected by 

 Sclerotinia fn'foliorinn, with two copious sprayings of a 2 per 

 cent, bouillie bordelaise. This had, however, no beneficial 

 effect whatever. 



The most important point to be decided concerning 

 methods of preventing the propagation of this affection is as to 

 the possibility of the infection being conveyed with the seeds 

 of clovers and other host plants. In the report of the Danish 

 Seed Control Station for the 25 years, 1 871 96 there is an 

 enumeration of insects and fungi in and among the seeds of 

 corn, grasses, and clovers, and it is stated that the sclerotia of 

 Sclerotinia trifoliorum were noticed among the seeds of red 

 clover. It is quite possible that sclerotia of the fungus might 

 be conveyed with the seeds of the plants. They are formed 

 sometimes, and in some species of clover, upon the flower 

 stalks. Rostrup shows this by the coloured figure illustra- 

 ting his paper "Kloverens Baegersvamp," already cited, which 

 shows the sclerotia of the fungus actually upon the leaves 

 and close to the nearly ripe seed-pods of " gulklover " 

 [Medicago lupulina). These sclerotia might easily get among 

 seed when it is thrashed, and the smallest of them might 

 pass through the screens and be sown with the seed, among 

 which they would hardly be noticed, as it has been shown that 

 they vary much in size, and some are hardly larger than 

 clover seeds. Prillieux states that the sclerotia are found 

 upon the leaf and flower stems of white clover and alsike.f 

 Several samples of clover seeds were examined during the- 

 spring, but no sclerotia were distinguished. In one case the 

 examination of a little of the seed left in the drill used for 

 sowing a clover field where the fungus did much harm showed 

 no traces of the sclerotia. It will be necessary to investigate 

 clover seeds closely before they are sown, and to take all 

 possible precautions against the spread of this insidious 

 parasite. 



* Expose des cultures experimentales instituees mi jardin provincial de Gaud 

 pendant Pannee ciilturale^ i8g2-j. — P, de Caluw^. 



t Maladies des plantes agricoks^ E. Prillieux, p. 419- 



