33 ° 
Journal of Agricultural Research 
Vol. I. No. 4 
From these facts it seems entirely possible, if not indeed probable, that 
the type fungus of Schweinitz and Von Thiimen was in reality identi¬ 
cal with Phyllosticta convexula Bub&k and that the immature perithecia 
were those of the fungus at present known as Glomerella cingulata . 
KERNEL-SPOT 
[Caused by Coniothyrium caryogenum , n. sp.] 
HISTORY AND DISTRIBUTION 
Fortunately this disease has hitherto been of only occasional occurrence. 
In the fall of 1907 infected kernels were received by Mr. W. A. Orton, 
Pathologist in Charge, Cotton and Truck Disease and Sugar-Plant Inves¬ 
tigations, Bureau of Plant Industry, from Minden, Ea., accompanied by 
the following statement: 
The disease of the pecans is not confined to any one tree or variety. * * * For 
six years they have contained the blight, growing worse each year, until I think that 
next year there will not be a single good one (nut) found among them. * * * I 
have never heard of this disease from anyone else. All our trees are infected. 
From these specimens Orton isolated a fungus with brown, septate, 
branched mycelium. No further studies were carried out to determine 
its parasitism or further cultural characters, 1 but examination of these 
specimens has shown them to have the symptoms associated with the 
kernel-spot. 
No other definite reports of the kernel-spot prior to 1910 have come 
to notice, but during the last three years occasional specimens from a 
number of Southern States have been received by the Office of Fruit- 
Disease Investigations. Among these communications the only report 
of serious injury was from a point in southern Georgia, where in the fall 
of 1911 most of the nuts on a large seedling tree were rendered unfit for 
consumption. From this source were obtained the fungous cultures 
used in the present inoculation work. Since there were no nuts on this 
tree the following year, field studies as to time and manner of infection 
could not be carried further. 2 
SYMPTOMS OP THE DISEASE 
Externally there is no evidence of infection and it is only upon freeing 
the kernel from the shell that the diseased condition becomes apparent. 
(PL XXXVII, fig. E.) On the surface of the kernel the spots are dark 
brown to almost black and often slightly sunken. They are in general 
irregularly roundish with a fairly definite margin and several millimeters 
in diameter. Internally the diseased tissue extends in an approximate 
1 Orton. W. A. From unpublished notes. 
3 If a tree is badly infected, the nuts should be gathered and burned, in order to lessen the chances of 
further spread of the disease. 
