228 REPORT OF THE DEPARTMENT OF BOTANY OF THE 
closely with those distributed in Ellis and Everhart’s Fungi Colum- 
biani, Century 24, No. 2314, under the name Cercospora medi- 
caginis E. & E. Probably our fungus is referable to this species.” 
However, other names have been given to Cercosporas occurring on 
alfalfa. In Delaware, Chester’? found one which he described 
under the name Cercospora helvola Sacc. var. Medicaginis Chester. 
Voorhees** mentions the occurrence of Cercospora helvola on alfalfa 
in New Jersey. Frank’ gives Medicago sativa as one of the hosts 
of Cercospora helvola. Saccardo™ includes C. medicagimis, but not 
C. helvola, in the list of fungi occurring on alfalfa. 
Apparently, there is no previous record of a Cercospora on alfalfa 
in New York. 
ALTERNARIA DISEASE (?) OF ALFALFA SEED. 
A few years ago Dr. Peglion,” an Italian investigator, announced 
that dead, brown seeds of alfalfa and red clover are commonly in- 
fested with a certain fungus the hyphz of which penetrate the seed 
coat. He found that under temperature and moisture conditions 
favorable to germination such seeds, instead of germinating, soon 
become overgrown with a dark-colored mold, Alternaria tenuis. 
This is said to occur even when the seeds have been previously steri- 
lized externally. The perithecial form of the fungus was found and 
identified as Pleospora alternariae Griff. & Gib. 
Our observations indicate that the alfalfa seed offered for sale in 
New York is, likewise, quite generally infested with Alternaria. 
Most of the samples of alfalfa seed received for examination at the 
Station have shown a greater or less number of dead, brown, 
shriveled seeds. In germination tests many of these brown seeds 
become moldy and in the great majority of cases the mold is of the 
same kind, viz., a species of Alternaria.”® 
@ Cercospora medicaginis was originally described on Medicago 1’ 
See Ellis and Everhart (25). 
™ Chester (13). 
Voorhees. (104, p. 155). 
Frank (30; 2:352). 
mesaccaTrdo’{ 0, 13-711): 
7 Peglion (76). 
* Mr. L. Knudson, now of the Department of Plant Physiology in the 
New York State College of Agriculture, informs us that, in 1907, while 
an assistant in the Department of Agromony at the Missouri Experiment 
Station, he made a large number of germination tests of alfalfa and red 
clover seed and observed that the brown seeds which fail to germinate usu- 
ally become infested with a species of Alternaria. 
