708 
Journal of Agricultural Research 
Vol. XXXI, No. 8 
A specimen deposited in the herbarium of the Office of Patholog¬ 
ical Collections bears the following label: 
Philippine Fungi, Herbarium, College of Agriculture, Los Banos, Philippines 
No. 5. Helminthosporium, inconspicuum. On leaf of Zea mays Linn. Los Banos. 
Laguna, P. I. Date, Dec. 17, 1919. Coll. L. Goco. Det. by O. A. Reinking. 
This specimen was found to consist of a portion of maize leaf bear¬ 
ing numerous well-characterized leafspot lesions. A larger discolored 
region was also present which may have been a leaf-blight lesion, 
but if so, it had not developed far enough to exhibit the fructifications 
of H. turcicum. 
In four collections of material made by W. H. Weston, jr., in the 
vicinity of Los Banos on July 17, 1918, September 10, 1918, Sep¬ 
tember 18, 1918, and January, 1920, the injury observed could be 
assigned without difficulty and presumably with certainty, to the 
parasite under discussion, either alone or together with Helmin - 
thosporium turcicum . The first of the collections made in a field 
where three-fourths of the stand had been killed reveals both leaf- 
spot and leaf-blight lesions, the former scattered profusely every¬ 
where over the foliar organs, the latter relatively few in number, but 
frequently very extensive, and often including numbers of leafspot 
lesions within their boundaries. The second collection made in a 
test plot where infection was described as rather serious, appeared 
entirely free of leaf blight, but exhibited an abundance of leafspot 
lesions. In the third collection, which was made in a field showing 
“noticeable loss/ 7 most of the leaves bore only leafspot lesions, 
while others were affected with leaf blight as well. On the young 
foliage that constitutes the collection of January, 1920, only leafspot 
lesions are evident, these being, however, both numerous and well 
developed. Although no general conclusions can be based on the 
few collections examined, it would appear that in 1918, 1919, 1920, 
and 1921 the leafspot disease occurred abundantly in the Philip¬ 
pines, manifestlv being responsible for moderate losses, even in tne 
absence of leaf Blight, and, where combined with the latter malady, 
responsible apparently in large part for instances of more destructive 
injury. 
In a brief discussion of Mitra 7 s interesting paper on the disease of 
maize and sorghum attributable to Helminthosporium turcicum in 
India (8), attention was called to certain discrepancies in morpho¬ 
logical detail between the account of the parasite given by that 
author and the account submitted by the writer from studies made 
in the Middle Atlantic States. It is believed that a partial explana¬ 
tion of these discrepancies may be found in the assmnption that 
Mitra was dealing not only with the leaf-blight parasite, but with 
the leafspot fungus as well, notably in the Pusa and Malda speci¬ 
mens, which yielded spores described as “curved and narrow. 77 
Certainly some of the figures of spores from the Pusa maize leaves 
(8, pi. II, 9, 10, 11, IS) are mor§ suggestive of the leafspot fungus 
than of H. turcicum, while the others (§, pi. II, 7, 8, 12) would seem 
to be more aptly illustrative of H. turcicum . It must be admitted, 
to be sure, that Mitra 7 s statement that the lesions on the Pusa and 
Malda material were similar to those on specimens from other 
localities, and that cultures derived from this material bore spindle- 
shaped, straight, or rarely curved conidia does not lend support to 
such an explanation. 
