Blind Seed Disease of Rye-Grass

Abstract

WITH reference to the communication from Muskett and Calvert¹, we wish to record that in 1891 Prillieux and Delacroix^2,3 described, in France, a parasite Endoconidium temulentum, on rye (Secale cereale), which possessed toxic properties. The genus Endoconidium was based on this fungus on account of the endogenous formation of its microconidia. Its perfect stage was later variously ascribed to the genera Phialea, Stromatinia and Sclerotinia. In the blind seed fungus we have found that the microconidia are produced endogenously as in Endoconidium; measurements of the apothecia, ascospores and microconidia agree closely in the two fungi; also positive results have recently been obtained by infecting the flowers of rye with spores of the blind seed fungus. The only point of difference is that macroconidia have not been described in Endoconidium.