ANTHRACNOSE OF CUCURBITS. %) 
HISTORY. 
The first authentic report of anthracnose is that of Passerini 
(16), who in 1867 found the disease on Lagenaria fruits at Padua, 
Italy. Eight years later, he (16) reported its extensive occurrence 
on watermelons and cantaloupes in the Province of Parma, Italy. 
In 1871 and in 1876 Berkeley (8, 4) reported in the Gardener’s 
Chronicle a Gloeosporium on cucumber fruits in England, the identity 
of which is doubtful. He (4) noted that Gloeosporia occurred on 
many hosts and thought them all cross inoculable. During the latter 
year D. T. Fish (18), a cucumber grower, reported in the same journal 
a new disease in his greenhouses which he recognized as distinct from 
the well-known downy mildew. From his rather careful description 
of the symptoms and behavior of this disease on cucumbers and musk- 
melons it seems quite hkely that it was anthracnose. 
Roumeguére (41), in France, published in’1880 a rather detailed 
account of this disease, occasioned by its occurrence in epidemic form 
on melons at Chalons the year previous. In a letter to Roumeguére 
in 1880 Saccardo reports the disease as causing serious damage in 
Italy since 1877. 
In Germany Frank (19, p. 518) reported in 1883 that a Gloeo- 
sporium had been destructive on cucumbers and melons. Acting 
upon Berkeley’s suggestion he tried cross inoculations of cucumber 
fruits with bean anthracnose. Negative results led him to conclude 
that the two species of fungi were distinct. 
In America the chief interest seems to have centered about the 
relation of the bean and the cucumber anthracnoses. The disease 
was noted as early as 1885 on gourds in Philadelphia by Dr. Eck- 
feldt and on watermelons in Wisconsin by Prof. A. B. Seymour, 
according to specimens listed by Ellis and Everhart (15, p. 112; 23). 
Cavara (8, p. 179), at Pavia, Italy, in 1889 found the fungus para- 
sitic upon the stems and first leaves of Lagenaria vulgaris in the botani- 
cal garden. He noted that the plants were killed by the disease and 
that its spread was very rapid. Later, in 1892, he (89) reported the 
disease on the cotyledons, foliage, stems, and fruits of different cucur- 
bits in the gardens of Pavia. 
Galloway (20) in 1889 reported anthracnose on melons in New 
Jersey, Virginia, and North Carolina. Halsted (23), in New Jersey, 
reported a serious blight of cucumbers in 1890 and of muskmelons in 
1892 due to this disease. Basing his belief upon successful cross 
inoculation from a watermelon fruit to bean pods and from both of 
these to a citron fruit, he concluded that the fungus was identical with 
that of bean anthracnose. 
Although not recognized as the same disease previously studied by 
Roumeguére, anthracnose of melons was described by Prillieux and 
Delacroix (39) in France in 1894. They noted that young plants 
