Journal of Agricultural Research 
VoL XXIV, No. 8 
650 
j. 
HBLMINTHOSPORIUM GRAMINBUM RAB. 
Brachysporium gracile (Wallr.) Sacc. var. gramineum (Rab.) Sacc. 1886, in Sylloge 
fungorum, v. 4, p. 430. 
Napicladium hordei Rostnip 1893, in Sygdomme hos landbrugsplanter foraarsagede af 
Snyltesvampe, p. 130-132. 
Helminthosporium gramineum (Rab.) Bfikss. 1885, in Fungi par. scand. exs., no. 187. 
Heterosporium gramineum of Oudemans, not Rabenhorst. 
The binomial Helminthosporium gramineum was applied by Raben¬ 
horst ^ to a fungus occurring on leaves of barley {Hordeum vulgare B.) 
collected at Poppelsdorf, Germany, June, 1856, and distributed as No. 
332 of the Herbarium Mycologicum. The pieces of leaves and stem that 
constitute the specimen deposited in the Herbarium of the Office of 
Pathological Collections are too small to show any possible characteristic 
pathological effect; and the fructifications of the fungus are in a condition 
that would appear to make its identification with any particular one of 
the three congeneric species now known to occur on barley a matter of 
great uncertainty. Rabenhorst regarded the fungus as related to 
Helminthosporium gracile Wallr. but differing from the latter in that its 
spores were solitary, elongated-cylindrical, and 3 to 6 septate. Ap¬ 
parently, in accordance with this view, Saccardo {128, v, 4, p. 430) at 
first reduced the form to a variety of Wallroth's species, which, more¬ 
over, he transferred to the genus Brachysporium. Later, however, he 
listed it as an independent species {128^ v. 10, p. 613). 
In 1886, Eriksson® distributed as Helminthosporium gramineum (Rab.) 
Erikss. specimens of diseased barley collected near Stockholm, Sweden, 
during the preceding season. The label includes a short revision of the 
specific diagnosis: 
Hyphi conidiophori solitarii vel 2-4 aggregati, subflavi 1-5 septati, denique saepe 
angulato anfracti. Conldia subflava, recta, elongato cylindracea, 1-5 septata, 50-100 
At longa, 14-20 At lata. 
Although this characterization applies better to the parasite causing 
the stripe disease than to that responsible for net-blotch, Eriksson 
apparently did not distinguish between the two. At any rate, the 
specimen in the herbarium of the Office of Pathological Collections shows 
lesions of both diseases; and in an account (j/) of Sie “leaf spot disease“ 
{hlad flackensjukdom) he reported most of the plants to have been affected 
more or less, while a relatively small proportion (i to 5 per cent) were 
affected so badly that no heads were developed. It may readily be sup¬ 
posed that the less severely diseased plants were mainly affected with 
net-blotch instead of with stripe, a supposition supported by the descrip¬ 
tion of the foliar lesions as elongated dark brown spots with light margins. 
Von Post (ill), working independently of Eriksson, in 1886 published 
an account of the “brown stripe disease'' (brunrandsjukdom) of barley, 
that had been very destructive at Ultuna, Sweden. The longitudinal 
yellowish streaks, (ffiaracteristic of all the leaves of attacked individual 
plants, suggestive of the variegation of ribbon grass, and later changing 
to brown or yellowish brown; the dying of the plants before the develop¬ 
ment of spikes, the systemic distribution of the fungus (indicative of 
seed transmissal and seedling infection) provide conclusive evidence 
that this investigator was dealing exclusively with the stripe disease. 
* RaBSNHORST. G. L. KiOTZSCHU HHRBAIUnM VIVtTM MYCOI.OGICUM SISTBNS PUNGORUM PBR TOTAM 
GJ^RMANiAM CRESCENTIUM coi.i.EcnoNSBf PERPECTAM ... Ed. II, Ccntury III, no. 332. 1856. 
* Eriksson, J. pungi PARASixia scandinavici EXSiccati no. 187. Helminthosporium gramineum 
(Rabh.) Erik^. Stockholm, Sw«ien. July, 1885. 
