News, Notes, and Reviews 
181 
The wilt disease is fully discussed. The view which has been 
previously advanced that Neocosmospora is an obligate sapro- 
phyte and not connected with Fusarium vasinfectum Atk., as has 
been supposed, is sustained. The question then arises as to the 
validity of the name Neocosmospora vasinfecta Smith, the species 
having been founded on Atkinson’s name given to the Fusarium. 
This illustrates the difficulty, at the present stage of our knowl- 
edge, of relying on conidial characters in the classification of the 
Ascomycetes. 
Considerable space is devoted to “Tuber rot and ring dis- 
coloration of the potato.” According to his investigations, six 
species of Fusarium have been confused with Fusarium Solani; 
also Hypomyces Solani and Nectria Solani, which have been 
thought to represent its ascogenous stage and are now regarded 
as harmless saprophytes. It is claimed that all of these species 
of Fusarium can be distinguished on morphological characters. 
This paper contains many valuable suggestions, but, from the 
standpoint of a taxonomist, it would seem to me that if more 
space had been used in recording exact details of pure culture 
experiments on which these conclusions are based and a little 
less in generalizing on their probable application, its value would 
have been greatly enhanced, at least so far as our knowledge of 
the ascomycetes is concerned. 
F. J. Seaver. 
