oct. 15,1925 Leaf spot of Maize Caused by Ophiobolus Tieterostrophus 711 
to 8.0 jj, in diameter, and sometimes more than 340 /x in length (fig. 
3 Ea to Ef), while the light olivaceous, generally curved 2 to 12 
septate conidia, gave as the more extreme measurements, 10 to 17 /x 
for diameter, ana 28 to 155 /x for length (fig. 3, Da to Dp), When 
treated with chloral hydrate, the hilum appeared as a broad, rather 
inconspicuous scar included within the contour of the basal cell, not 
as a protruding modification. It was in all probability the latter 
fungus which Reinking and Mitra regarded as the leaf-blight fungus, 
and which apparently they believed Saccardo had identified as H, 
curvulum. 
As to the correctness of a view holding the larger tassel mold 
identical with the leaf-blight fungus, no final decision is possible 
without a comparison of living material of both forms developed 
under similar conditions. In the absence of cultures of the larger 
species obtained from diseased tassels, the writer has been unable to 
make such comparison. He is, nevertheless, quite convinced that 
the two forms represent altogether distinct species—that, in short, 
the larger tassel mold is not Helminthosporium turcicum,' The pos¬ 
sibility remains, of course, that H. turcicum may occur on male in¬ 
florescences of maize to some extent, although the writer has not 
observed anything he could have identified with this species on any 
of the specimens examined by him. 
In comparing the larger tassel mold with the leafspot fungus, a 
striking degree of similarity at once appears. In respect to diameter 
and spacing of septa in conidiophore and conidium, the two forms 
agree closely. Both are similar in that the conidia are strongly 
curved, are septate up to twelve times, are from 10 to 17 /x in diameter, 
and have a broad scar contained within the contour of the basal cell. 
The only evident difference is the length of conidiophore and conidia, 
these dimensions attaining considerably greater maxima in the 
material from affected tassels, although the difference between the 
general run of spores is not especially marked. It is possible that a 
condition prevails here similar to that found in the case of Helmin¬ 
thosporium oryzae , which produces, on the mats of well-developed 
sporophoric filaments that constitute the black mold on the inflores¬ 
cence, conidia considerably longer than those produced on the poorly 
developed sporophores arising sparsely from the foliar lesions. 
Although the writer is inclined to regard the larger tassel mold on 
maize.as identical with the parasite causing maize leafspot, he is not 
prepared to offer this view as a conclusive opinion. 
In any case it appears certain that Reinking and Mitra were in 
error in assuming that the tassel mold which they regarded as identi¬ 
cal with Helminthosporium turcicum was the one which Saccardo 
identified as H, curvulum Sacc., in spite of the aptness of the latter 
specific name. As the diagnosis of H, curvulum (H, p, 89) did not 
appear until 1919, Reinking probably drew a natural but mistaken 
inference from an examination of Baker’s Fungi Malayana No. 239. 
The species is based apparently on a fungus on leaves of Bambusa 
blumeana , and in part is characterized as follows: 
* * * Conidiophoris dense fasciculatis, filiformibus, 90-100= 6-7 m, sep- 
tatis, fuligineis, sursam pallidioribus obsoleteque denticulatis; conidiis obclavatis, 
distincte curvato-gibbis, 35-40 = 9-12, utrinque, praecipae basi rotundatis 
3-septatis, non constrictis, grosse 4-guttatis, fuligineis, loculis binis mediis ob- 
scurioribus. 
