918 
Journal of Agricultural Research 
Vol. XXVIII, No. 9 
Likewise, Manns and Adams (14) state that— 
The fungus Oospora verticilloides described by Saccardo on corn is no doubt identical with Fusarium 
moniliforme. 
Oospora verticilloides Sacc. (20, v. 2, p. 546) has been discussed by European 
writers chiefly in its supposed etiological relation to pellagra. There is nothing 
about the original description or the illustration which disagrees with the micro- 
conidia of Fusarium moniliforme, but the description is somewhat lacking in de¬ 
tail. A translation of the description is as follows: Colonies white, conidio- 
phores simple, branched or subverticillate, conidia in short chains, and oblong- 
fusoid or sub-obclavate, 2.5 to 3 by 8 to 10/*, hyaline, found on broken corn 
kernels. 
Cuboni (2), working on pellagra in Italy, in 1882, reported a fungus almost 
universally present in corn of both good and poor quality in the pellagra districts, 
which he referred provisionally to Saccardo’s Oospora verticilloides. He based 
the identification on Saccardo’s illustrations, as he did not have access to the 
description. Cuboni’s description agrees with that of Saccardo, except that he 
does not mention the catenulate arrangement of conidia. His three figures, 
showing mycelium, microconidia, and germinating microconidia, add nothing to 
his description. 
Deckenbach published articles on Oospora verticilloides in connection with 
pellagra in Bessarabia, in 1896 (3), 1899 (4, 5), and 1907 (6). The 1907 article 
is a summary and contains all his data on the fungus. He gives a more detailed 
account of it than Cuboni and reports it as a widespread parasite of corn every¬ 
where in Bessarabia. It reaches the individual ovaries of the corn by following 
the silk before the milk stage. He speaks of the scattered infected kernels with 
their broken pericarps and crumbling white contents of starch grains and fungus 
spores standing out sharply against the amber-gold of the normal kernels. He 
mentions culturing it on agar, potatoes, beef-peptone-gelatin, sterilized corn, 
and sterilized corn meal. Growth on the first three media mentioned is light. 
The gelatin is liquefied by the fungus. The color on the corn and corn meal 
changes from white to pink in three or four weeks and finally intensifies to violet 
in six to eight weeks. 
Tiraboschi (26), in 1905, also concerned with the cause of pellagra in Italy, 
gives a very careful and detailed description of Oospora verticilloides. The 
optimum temperature for the fungus he finds to be 25° to 30° C. He gives 
certain cultural characters on the following media: Potatoes moistened with 
Baulin’s fluid, Raulin’s fluid agar, broth, gelatin, corn decoction, and milk. He 
studied the formation of the chains of microconidia as it occurred around the 
margin of hanging-drop cultures. 
Not all of the cultural methods of Tiraboschi have been duplicated by the 
writer with Fusarium moniliforme. There is nothing particularly distinctive 
about the cultural characters he mentions, and in general they are what one 
would expect of F. moniliforme. The morphological characters given for the 
fungus with which he worked are very detailed and agree perfectly with F. 
moniliforme. He even mentions the fact that the last formed conidium in the 
chain is shorter and more nearly round than those formed first, and that the 
proximal ends of the conidia are more acute than the distal ends. His drawings 
are careful and might well be those of F. moniliforme. 
In addition to this, the specimens of corn kernels attacked by Oospora verticil¬ 
loides Sacc. in D. Saccardo’s Mycotheca italica as specimen No. 1372 collected at 
Udine, Italy, by Prof. Sbozzi in 1903, are very similar to the numerous specimens 
of attacked corn kernels examined in the present investigations. The lesions on 
the kernels of the Saccardo specimen, that is, the blisters and cracks, are identical 
with kernel lesions in which Fusarium moniliforme Sheldon is commonly found 
in this country. Microscopic examination of the Saccardo material showed 
