The inheritance of resistance in common wheat {Tnticum aeitnum E.) to Septoria glume blotch, caused by the pathogen Septoria nodorum Berk., v.'as studied. Four quantitative parameters of resistance were measured: infection efficiency (IE) and disease seventy (DS) on intact young plants together with le.sion size (LS) and length of latent period (LP) on detached leaves. The method of testing the disease reaction of wheat to S. nodorum on detached leave.s was refined and standardised to minimize the nonpathological sources of variation. Pour wheat cultivars were tested for their reaction to 11 Septoria nodorum isolates. Two of the cultivars were crossed lor studies on the genetics of host resistance, using a single S. nodorum isolate tor inoculation; parental, F:, F; and F, populations were analysed.Interaction between wheat cultivars and S nodorum isolates was significant, but its variance component was Cjuue small compared with the main effects of cultivars and isolates. The inheritance of resistance was mainly additive, with low to moderate heritability, apparently controlled by 3 to 4 quantitative genes, with indications of gene lnteractiO'ns. LS and LP were highly correlated, suggesting pleiotropy for these two parameters of resistance, IE and DS (on mtact plants) \sTre moderately correlated to LS and LP (on detached leaves), apparently due to a partial pieiotropy or linkage.