12 BULLETIN 727, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
THE CAUSAL ORGANISM. 
TAXONOMY. 
The fungus causing anthracnose as it occurred on Lagenaria fruits 
at Padua, Italy, was described by Passerini (16) in 1868 under the 
name of Fusarium lagenarium Pass. 
Berkeley (3) in 1871 reported Gloeosporium laeticolor on a ripe 
cucumber and in 1876 (4) reported Gloeosporia on various hosts, 
including cucumbers and melons. He suggested that all were trans- 
ferable from one host to another and that all these fungi might be 
identical with a fungus on gourd fruits ‘“‘known to mycologists as 
_Gloeosporium orbiculare Berk.’ Owing to imperfect description the 
identity of this fungus is a matter of question. In kis 1910 index, 
Saccardo (42, v. 19) still retains this species. 
In 1880 Roumeguére (41) described this disease as it occurred on 
muskmelons at Chalons, France. He recognized the fungus as a 
Gloeosporium, but at first believed it identical with a Fusarium 
reticulatum Mont. observed on watermelons in 1843, and hence 
named it Gloeosporium (Fusarium) reticulatum (Mont.) Roum. 
Later in the year 1880, upon the advice of Saccardo, Roumeguére 
(40) recognized that Passerini was the first to describe the fungus 
under consideration and changed the name to Gloeosporium lagena- 
rium (Pass.) Sacc. and Roum. He takes no notice of Berkeley’s 
work. 
In 1882 Berkeley and Broome (5) reported a Gloeosporium cucur- 
bitarum B. and Br. on Cucurbita fruits in Australia. This, Saccardo 
suggests, may be identical with Gloeosporium lagenarium, and he 
does not list it in his 1910 index. 
In America in 1885 Ellis and Everhart (15, p- 118) list as Gloeo- 
sporium lagenarium Pass. a fungus found on gourds, and later 
Gloeosporium lindemuthianum S. and M. on watermelon rinds. Still 
later, specimens of Gloeosporium lagenarium (Pass.) var. foliicolum 
E. and E. upon cucumber, watermelon, and muskmelon leaves were 
distributed (23). 
Cavara (8, p. 179) at Pavia, Italy, where Passerini first found this 
fungus, described in 1889 a Colletotrichum oligochaetum Cay., parasitic 
upon Lagenaria plants. He noted that this fungus differed from the 
earlier descriptions in that sete were present in the acervuli and the 
spores were slightly smaller. Saccardo (42, vy. 10, p. 469) in 1892 
gave this form specific rank, but as a result of Halsted’s critical 
examination of exsiccati it now seems certain, however, that Cavara 
had the same fungus previously described by Passerini and Roume- 
ouére. | 
Basing his assumption upon morphological similarity and very 
meager cross inoculations, Halsted (23) in 1893 concluded that the 
fungi of bean and watermelon anthracnoses were identical. He 
