358 Marshall Ward.— On a lily-disease. 
that its only claim to alliance with its supposed congeners 
lay in a superficial resemblance during one phase of its life- 
history. Now, apart from other instances, it has resulted 
from the studies of Tulasne (who first demonstrated that 
Botrytis ( Polyactis ) cinerea is the gonidial form of a Dis- 
comycete), Brefeld, De Bary, and others of the school of 
mycologists who have striven to found species and genera only 
on a knowledge of the entire life-history of the forms, that 
the group of forms known as Polyactis among English 
authors, but still called Botrytis by the Germans, are really 
only stages— gonidial or conidial forms — in the life-history of 
certain Pezizas 1 . 
The question now arises, to which, if any, of these groups 
is the fungus of this lily-disease to be relegated. It is not a 
question to be answered off-hand, in face of the warnings to 
be gathered from a consideration of the many mistakes which 
have arisen from authors founding species on incomplete in- 
formation ; nor do the descriptions of authors help us much, 
though good figures exist in some cases and are of great 
service in the process. 
But there is other evidence to hand, which has to be 
discussed, for the disease in question, together with its fungus, 
has been already noticed in England, and in part described. 
On referring to the ‘Gardeners’ Chronicle,’ for 1881 2 , there 
is a short article on the subject by the Rev. M. J. Berkeley, 
beginning with remarks on a letter from Mr. Wolley Dod. 
In this letter we are informed that various species of Lilium , 
and especially L. auratum , after a fortnight or so of wet, 
stormy weather, had become spotted — ‘ Rust-coloured patches 
come upon the leaves of buds as if they had been burnt ; if 
the buds are not completely destroyed, the flowers become 
imperfect and distorted, and the whole plant has a blighted 
appearance.’ All kinds of lilies were attacked in the beds in 
1 Thus, as has so often occurred with Fungi, different phases in the life-history 
of one and the same form have received special names. Cf. De Bary, Biol, of 
Fungi, p. 238. 
2 P. 34 °- 
