794 Aymual Report jor 1892 of the Consulting Botanist. 
mended for eel-worm, would, I believe, assist in ridding a field of this 
destructive organism. 
But the most remarkable attack was one affecting the wheat 
and barley crojJS of the East and South of England. My attention 
was first drawn to it by Mr. Clare Sewell Bead. The ears of the 
affected grain were darkened as if thinly dusted with soot. In 
sending me the specimens he informed me that a great quantity of 
the wheat grown in Norfolk was similarly injured. The attack 
appeared early in August and speedily spread over the wheat-fields. 
During harvest, at the end of August, the men in binding the wheat 
were blackened with the spores. Mr. Read says that after pushing 
his hand into several wet sheaves it looked as if it had been up the 
chimney. Notwithstanding the spread of the fungus, he informs 
me that the crop was rather above the average, though the straw 
was rough and black from the fungus. 
The injury was due to the presence of a minute dark-brown 
fungus called Scolicotrichum graminis, Fuckel, which had been 
figured by Saccardo in his Fungi Italiani (t. 927). The densest 
masses of the fungus occurred in the opening between the tips of 
the inner glumes ; they were found to be growing on a mass of 
pollen grains which still filled the cavity above the seed. It was 
also spread irregularly over the tips of the outer glumes, springing 
from brown jointed mycelium which was growing on the surface of 
the glumes, as well as penetrating under the epidermis, and pushing 
its way through the tissues of the glume. The fruiting stems burst 
through the epidermis in little tufts arranged in linear series. These 
stems are simple, jointed, and in the upper portion, where the spores 
are borne, somewhat irregular. The spores are terminal or lateral 
on the stem, and are oblong, oval, and uniseptate. This fungus is 
supposed by some to be the conidial state of Spha;rella recutita, 
Cooke. With the view of discovering the other stages of its life I 
placed its spores, under favourable conditions, on the foliage of 
cocksfoot and meadow grass, but though eighty sowings were made 
not a single spore established itself. 
The appearance of the crop attacked by this fungus is most 
unsatisfactory, but the injury done was not serious. This is due to 
the circumstance that the mycelium does not penetrate the tissues 
so as to intercept the flow of the food to the seed, as in the case of 
wheat mildew. 
From the description given by Mr. Plowright of a fungus which 
was very abundant this year in Norfolk, I believe it to be identical 
with Scolicotrichum graminis. He says that where it was present 
to any extent the reaping-machine was surrounded by a cloud of 
dust composed of the spores. 
Several cases of injuries from eel-worms (species of Tylenchus) 
have been forwarded to me. Oats in several districts were injured 
at the base of the stem, producing the enlargement called “ tulip- 
root.” A remarkable case of injury to tomatoes was investigated. 
Innumerable galls were produced in the roots, so as to arrest their 
proper growth and destroy their functional activity. Root injuries 
