The Colorado Experiment Station 
16 
nutrient agar, plus 15. It has been re-inoculated into healthy 
canes from pure cultures by means of needle punctures, and typical 
brown splotches characteristic of the injury have been produced 
inside of two weeks; from the lesions thus produced, the original 
fungus has been re-isolated. Both the brown septate mycelium and 
the fruiting bodies (perithecia) present on the canes, as well as the 
changes, produced in the plant, correspond to the description of the 
pyrenomycete, Sphaerella rubina, and its attendant injuries given 
by Peck in the 48th Annual Report of the New York State 
Museum, Part I, page 114. The description follows: 
“Sphaerella rubina n. sp. Perithecia minute, .007 to .009 in. 
broad, commonly gregarious, sometimes forming extended patches, 
submembraneous, obscurely papillate, pertuse, subglobose or de¬ 
pressed, at first covered by the epidermis, becoming superficial 
when the epidermis falls away, black; asci cylindrical, subsessile, 
.003 to .0035 in. long, .00045 to .0005 broad; spores uniseriate 
or subbiseriate, oblong, obtuse, uniseptate, generally constricted 
in the middle, hyaline, .0006 in. long, .00024 to .0003 broad, the 
upper cell often a little larger than the lower. 
“Stems of cultivated raspberries. Menands. April and May. 
“This species is injurious to the plants it attacks. The 
affected plants either die from the disease or are so weakened by 
it that they are winter-killed wholly or in part. Generally the 
epidermis is whitened over the patches of the fungus, but some 
times brown spots indicate the presence and location of the fungus. 
The mycelium consists of brown septate filaments. From 
Didymella applanata, which this fungus resembles in some respects, 
it is separated by the absence of paraphyses.” 
Stewart and Eustace*, while investigating the cause of rasp¬ 
berry cane blight, which they believe to be due to a species of 
Coniothyrium (C. fuckelii?) have found Sphaerella rubina asso¬ 
ciated with Coniothyrium. However, they are of the opinion that 
this organism is not injurious to the canes on which it occurs, and 
plays no part as a casual agent in cane blight in which the wood 
itself is attacked. Our trouble is manifestly distinct from cane 
blight, for in no case is the wood involved. 
Concerning the injury to red raspberries by Sphaerella rubina 
in New York State, Peck** gives the following: 
“Having been informed that the raspberry patches of the 
fruit growers in the vicinity of Marlboro, Ulster County, were 
suffering from disease, and wishing to know the cause of it. a visit 
^Bulletin 226, N. Y. Exp. Station, Geneva, N. Y., p. 357, Dec., 1902. 
**Sixty-fourth Annual Report (1910) N. Y. State Museum—State 
Botanist, p. 7, 191.1. 
