96 
head to dry up and ripen prematurely. Although I have not made a 
thorough study of the disease it seems to be due to a fungus described 
by Worthington G. Smith* * * § as Fusisporium culmorum. The genus Fusis- 
porium is placed by Saccardo with Fusarium. In all probability Smith’s 
species is one of the others affecting grains, but I have not compared 
them. The mycelium of the fungus is Avhite or yellowish and permeates 
the kernel and flower. According to Smith the spikelets are glued 
together by a gelatinous substance produced by the threads and this 
causes their death. The liyphm when placed in a nutrient solution pro¬ 
duce an abundance of fusiform septate spores. It should be remem¬ 
bered that the genus Fusarium contains many representatives which are 
entirely saprophytic. Thus Fusarium solani , which is destructive to 
tomatoes, is not able as Prof. Gallowayt has shown, to cause rot unless 
the tissues are somewhat disorganized. Cladosporium herbarum is not 
an uncommon fungus on u blighted wheat heads,” and Frank f has shown 
that it is parasitic on the heads and leaves of various grasses. This 
disease seems to have been known for a long time in Iowa. Prof. Bessey 
so stated at the Indianapolis meeting of the Society for the Promotion 
of Agricultural Science; and it is also found in many parts of the United 
States, as Prof. Galloway stated at the same meeting. Dr. Weed lias 
found it very destructive in parts of Ohio. Some varieties are more 
subject to the disease than others. Thus winter wheat was not subject 
to it nearly as much as some of the most highly prized of the hard 
wheats like the Saskatchewan. 
Diseases of Barley. —Barley on the college farm at Ames this year, 
aside from the “rusts” and “smuts,” has been subject to two diseases. 
One, Scolecotrichum graminis , Fuckl.,§ which has long been known as 
a serious pest to orchard, timothy,|| and other grasses.fi The diseased 
leaves are marked with brown, or purplish brown, spots, which appear 
on the leaves transversely. The liyplim, which are sometimes septate, 
make their way through the stomata and bear the small brownish spores 
at the end, or sometimes laterally. The fungus occurred on all of the 
varieties. 
The other fungus is Helminthosporium graminum , Babli. This ap¬ 
pears earlier and is more destructive. Mr. Ellis, to whom specimens 
were submitted, Avrites that the fungus is, without doubt, Babenhorst’s 
Helminthosporium graminum , and this is the same as H. inconspicuum , 
* Diseases of Field and Garden Crops, p. 208. 
t Report U. S. Dept. Agriculture, 1888, p. 339. 
t Kranklieiten derPflanzen, p. 580. 
§ Trelease, Dept, of Agrl. Report 1886. p. 129, Plate vn. Ellis, N. Am. Fungi, No. 
1988 a and I>. 
|| Bidrag till Kannedomen om vara odlade vaxters sjkdomar. pp. 185, pi. 9. Sorauer 
Just Bot. Jabresb. 1885 p. 502. 
% Saccardo Sylloge lungorum, Vol. iv. p. 348. 
