A GLOEOSPORIUM DISEASE OF THE SPICE BUSH 
J. J. Taubenhaus 
In June, 1909, Dr. M. T. Cook, formerly of the Delaware Experi- 
ment Station, called my attention to a disease of the spice bush fruit. 
Diseased material was at once collected and cultures made from the 
interior of the affected fruit, care being taken to observe all the rules of 
asepsis. In three days a pure culture of a Gloeosporium had appeared 
in all the poured plates. As far as I could determine from literature, 
no Gloeosporium disease was reported to attack the spice bush. 
Shear^ in his extensive studies on the genus Glomerella does not mention 
the spice bush as being the host to a Gloeosporium. Ellis and Everhart^ 
first described Gloeosporium officinale E. & E. on sassafras in Delaware. 
Sassafras variifolium (Salisb.) Ktze. is a shrub, which in common 
with the spice bush, Benzoin aestivale (L.) Nees. belongs to the family 
Lauraceae. In studying the disease, the possible identity of the spice 
bush Gloeosporium with that of the sassafras at once suggested itself. 
Studies were therefore made to determine the pathogenicity of the 
fungus, its identity with Gloeosporium officinale E. & E. and the re- 
lationship of both fungi to Gloeosporium fructigenum Berk, of the bitter 
rot of the apple. 
Symptoms. — The spots on the green immature spice bush fruit are 
characterized at first by small darkish depressions. Several of these 
spots either coalesce and form a larger one, or a single spot gradually 
enlarges and invades the whole area of the fruit which as a result drops 
off prematurely. The ascervuli usually appear later when the fruit 
drops, or within twenty-four hours if placed in a moist chamber. The 
disease is not confined to the fruit alone, but may attack also the tender 
foliage and twigs. The symptoms on the plant later are those re- 
sembling somewhat the injury due to fire blight of young apple shoots, 
with the difference, however, that in the spice bush the disease seems 
to be limited to the tender portions of the plant. Diseased leaves 
do not seem to form ascervuli while still attached to the plant, but 
1 Shear, C. L. and Wood, A. K. Studies of fungous parasites belonging to the 
genus Glomerella. Bur. PI. Ind. Bui. 252, 1913. 
2 Ellis, J. B. and Everhart, B. M. New species of fungi from various localities. 
Proc. Acad. Nat. Science, Philadelphia: 322-386, 1894. 
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