Feb. 23,1924 
Life History of Grape Rootrot Fungus 
613 
not show that they function as spores in any way. While the writer 
did not find these bodies quite so regularly developed in long chains as 
described by these authors, there can be no doubt that they are identical. 
One 2-liter flask of kidney-bean juice with 2 per cent agar and pieces 
of steamed grapevine added was autoclaved and inoculated with bits 
of mycelium from a single-spore culture. In a few days compact round 
colonies buff in color appeared. These increased in size and when about 
one-half inch in diameter were raised in the center, felty, and pale 
green with rim of white or buff. The green color deepened and brightened, 
and when the colonies were 5 cm. across they were deep grayish green 
with wide white or cream colored margins. The colonies coalesced 
with distinct lines of demarkation. Soon concentric rings appeared 
with the centers glaucous, green, and felty. The other rings were in 
order, buff color and white, the newest growth being white. The whole 
growth was superficial, and no fruiting bodies of any kind were ever 
formed. 
Another 2-liter flask of kidney-bean juice containing 4 per cent agar 
with per cent tartaric acid and 5 per cent sugar with pieces of steamed 
grape vine added was inoculated in the same way as the other flasks. 
This medium had a jelly-like consistency. Seven or eight compact 
felty buff-colored colonies appeared in less than two weeks, one showing 
a faint greenish-brown tinge. Two or three weeks later the colonies 
were quite irregular, felty, and greenish yellow, with wide white or buff 
colored margins, which soon coalesced. No fruiting bodies or chlamy- 
dospores were formed on this medium. Viala and Pacottet report that 
their cultures on similar media produced conidia. 
inoculation of grape roots 
A number of roots of grape were inoculated in April, 1921, by placing 
mycelium in wounds made on the roots or by spraying them with as- 
cospores produced in culture. A number of fruiting bodies were found 
eight months later on certain roots which had been sprayed with 
ascospores. These fruiting bodies were characteristic ascocarps, except 
that some of them had greenish stalks and heads, while some were buff 
colored with cinder-gray heads. They produced asci and ascospores of 
the usual sort. 
DISCUSSION 
The results of the culture experiments show that ascocarps were 
formed on all the media in tube cultures after four or five months, 37 
cultures fruiting. None has been found in the large flasks of kidney-bean 
media, but these cultures comprised a much larger bulk and remained 
in a moist condition, and up to the time reported on were not dried down, 
as were the test-tube cultures. Ascocarps were developed abundantly 
in cultures from single ascospores and without any intermediate spore 
form such as Pilacre petersii or other imperfect stage. The best medium 
for the production of fruiting bodies was obtained by autoclaving apple 
roots in test tubes. These were large tubes giving a good supply of air, 
and when the culture medium had dried somewhat fruiting bodies formed 
in abundance. Rubus stems used in the same way proved much less 
satisfactory, while oatmeal-paste agar was second only to apple roots, 
and these cultures could be depended on to produce numerous ascocarps. 
A cool, humid atmosphere, such as obtains in the ordinary refrigerator, 
was apparently essential to the production of fruiting bodies. At room 
temperature in diffuse light only one culture was found with ascocarps. 
