Oct. 1,1925 
Sclerotinia Species Causing Decay of Vegetables 
603 
were affected with Sclerotinia decay. The percentage of infected 
plants in these cars ranged from 1 per cent in some cars to 100 per cent 
in others, the average being approximately 50 per cent. 
Sclerotinia libertiana occurs much less frequently on fruits than 
on vegetables. The writer has studied a strain from lemon, 6 which 
was known to cause “ cottony rot,” and also a culture from strawberry. 
Smith {27) concluded from his morphological and cross-inoculation 
work that the organism causing u cottony rot” of the fruits and 
attacking the twigs of oranges and lemons in the orchard is identical 
with S. Libertiana. In the present work, the writer has been unable 
to find any differences between the strains just mentioned and many 
other strains obtained from vegetable crops. The sclerotia, apo- 
thecia, asci, and spore measurements are similar, and inoculation 
work has shown these strains to be pathogenic to all of the vegetables 
tried, except potato. It appears, therefore, that S. libertiana is not 
limited to the vegetable crops, but that the manner of growth of 
the host and the opportunities for infection are the important limiting 
factors. 
A §JLudy of climatological, together with the inspectors 7 certificates 
issued by the United States Bureau of Agricultural Economics on 
car-lot shipments of perishable produce, show that a rainy season 
just before and during harvesting time is very favorable for Sclerotinia, 
and that crops are more likely to become infected under such con¬ 
ditions and decay during transit or storage. This is very well 
illustrated by a refrigerated car of Louisiana carrots inspected, by 
the writer in Chicago. These carrots were wet and dirty and gave 
every evidence of having been dug in wet weather. They were 
inspected and accepted at loading point as a good product. The 
car was in transit only four days, and its refrigeration record (40° to 
46° F.) was good throughout the trip, yet on arrival at Chicago 
careful inspection showed that more than 85 per cent of the carrots 
were affected with Sclerotinia decay. The tops were wet and badly 
decaying, and the roots showed watery lesions often covering over 
25 per cent of their surface. This is also a very good illustration of 
the fact that products which appear healthy at loading time may be 
contaminated or may have incipient lesions which develop into 
serious decay in transit. There was a loss of approximately $900 
on this car due to this decay. This is only one of the many instances 
that might be cited to show the swift destruction of vegetable produce 
caused by Sclerotinia under refrigeration and transit conditions that 
are ordinarily considered good. 
MORPHOLOGY 
A large number of cultures have been compared in an attempt to 
ascertain whether there were any morphological differences between 
the various strains of Sclerotinia collected, as shown by mycelium, 
sclerotia, apothecia, asci, spores, and microconidia. 
In culturing fungi, it has sometimes been noticed that the type of 
inoculum used in making the transfer determines, to some extent at 
least, the type of growth and spore formation ( 1 ). In transferring 
from old cultures o? Sclerotinia, the sclerotia are probably most often 
‘Original culture obtained from H. S. Fawcett, through courtesy of D. H. Rose. 
