May 26.1923 Graminicolous Species of Helminthosporium 
725 
In 1900 van Breda de Haan {16) described from Java os Helmintho- 
sporium oryzae.jxixmgxis producing spots on living rice leaves, the affected 
areas being entirely dry in the center and surrounded by a brown margin. 
The brown conidiophores arising from the under side of the leaves, 
according to his characterization, bear large, fuliginous fusiform aero- 
genous 6- to 9-celled conidia, measuring 16 hy go jj, and germinating from 
both end cells. The fungus which had also been found on the fruits of 
rice, the author, evidently influenced by von Thiimen's paper, regarded 
as probably identical with H. macrocarpum Grev. 
The next year (1901) Hori {62) gave an account of the same disease 
in Japan, and apparently without knowing of van Breda de Haan’s 
paper, named the parasite Helminthosporium oryzae Miyabe and Hori. 
The fungus has since been reported from Japan by Yoshino (rdi), 
Kurosawa (80), and others, whfle in more recent years Suematsu {146) 
has investigated its cultural characters, and Nishikado and Miyake (94) 
have studied methods for its control. An illustrated account of the 
disease and the parasite is given in Ideta’s large handbook (<55). An 
unidentified species of Helminthosporium on rice was reported from 
the Straits and Federated Malay States by Gallagher (46), from Madras 
by Sundararaman (147), from Uganda by Snowden (rj5), from Ceylon 
by Bryce (17), from Cochin-China by Vincens (155), as well as from the 
Philippines by Reinking (rry). In a recent note, Oefemia (96) states 
that in 1918 he observed a seedling and leaf blight attributable to H, 
oryzae doing considerable damage to rice in the Philippines. Fameti (59) 
ascribed the “ brusone ’* disease of rice in Italy to a fungus highly variable 
in its morphological characteristics and pathological manifestations; 
presumably appearing as either Piricularia grisea^ P, oryzae^ H, turcicum^ 
or H. oryzae, its form in any particular case being contingent on the host 
plant, the organ attacked, and the environment. 
Beyond a statement in Oefemia's (96) note that the sesame spot 
disease’' of rice caused by Helminthosporium oryzae was observed by 
W. H. Tisdale in Louisana in 1920, the American literature does not 
seem to contain any reference to the occurrence of the parasite in this 
country. Dr. Tisdale has advised the writer that the Helminthosporium 
leaf spot is of not uncommon occurrence in the rice fields of Louisiana 
and Texas, and has kindly supplied specimens of affected mature rice 
inflorescences collected in this locality on September 15, 1920. An ex¬ 
amination of these specimens showed that the fungus occurs on the 
glumes at first as a gra)dsh efflorescence, and later, because of continued 
development, as a black velvety mat, somewhat similar in texture to 
the crustose growth of H. ravenelii on Sporoholus indica but much less 
extensive. (PI. 30, A.) Through the courtesy of Mr. Oefemia, pure 
cultures of the fungus originally isolated from Louisiana material were 
obtained, as well as specimens of rice leaves from experimental plants 
artificially inoculated. The leaves bore an abundance of dark brown or 
reddish brown spots, longitudinally elongated, the larger ones measur¬ 
ing up to 0.5 by 3.0 mm., and showing a small straw-colored area in the 
center. (PI. 30, B.) No indication of an etiolated zone surrounding 
the foliar spot like that characteristic, for example, of the blotch caused 
by //. hromi, was present, the discoloration caused by the fun^s mani¬ 
festly resembling that produced by //. leersii on Leersia virginica, and 
belonging to the type that in other instances has suggested the term 
*‘eye spot." In pathological symptoms the American parasite thus 
resembles the fungi described from Java {16) and from Japan (62). 
