756 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



to be due to a Pyrenornycete, Phthora vastatrix g. et sp. n. The first 

 symptoms are the raising of the bark at the base of the trunk, which 

 then splits and sometimes comes off. The tree is killed by the hyphae 

 hindering the circulation of the sap, and by the destruction of the 

 cambium. Infection takes place on the roots, especially of the older 

 trees. Shade trees are also attacked by the same fungus, though its 

 action on these trees is slightly different. Conidia and spermogonia are 

 formed, as well as perithecia. 



N. A. Cobb * has published a pamphlet which gives an account of 

 troublesome diseases in Hawaii, most of them fungoid diseases, and 

 especially affecting the culture of the sugar-cane. Ithyphallus, Clathrus, 

 and Dictyophora, all genera of the Phalloideas, infect the roots of the 

 cane. These are fully described and compared. Diseases of the leaves 

 caused by microscopic fungi, are also noted, Leptosphseria Sacchari, 

 Oercospora Sacchari, etc. Cobb gives his method of treating these 

 various diseases. A section of his work deals with timber-rots, caused 

 also by fungi, among others Lepiota cepsestipes and a yellow-spored 

 agaric ; the effects produced by these fungi are described. Cobb esti- 

 mates the spores from one pileus of the yellow agaric as somewhere over 

 300,000,000. 



A disease of various species of Ribes is described by T. Wulff t as 

 due to Botrytis. Leaves and fruit are attacked and badly damaged ; 

 the former are inoculated through the stomata, the fruit probably 

 through some small wound. Sclerotia are formed on the decaying fruits, 

 but no ascomycetous form has been noticed ; probably it is a form of 

 Scler o tinia Ft tcke liana . 



Von Faber % reviews the diseases to which the cotton-plant is subject ; 

 the roots are often attacked by Neocosmospora vasinfecta, first detected 

 in N. America ; it entirely destroys the roots. A species of Diplodia 

 also attacks the roots that have previously suffered from Neocosmospora, 

 and another species of Diplodia destroys the leaves. Faber gives a series 

 of fungi, Puccinia, Cladosporiam, etc., that destroy either the foliage, 

 leaves, or the flowers ; the destruction of the capsules called " black- 

 boll " is probably due to bacteria. 



E. Rehm§ writes on the occurrence of black-scab in potato in 

 England ; he points out the confusion that has arisen in the determina- 

 tion of the fungus Chrysophlyctis endobiotica, and gives an account of 

 the methods used for its extermination. A bibliography of the litera- 

 ture on this subject is added. 



Carlo Tiraboschi || has examined by means of cultures the different 

 fungi that are to be found on diseased maize. There are species of 

 Oospora, Penicillium, Asperqilh/s, Hormodendron, and Diplodia. He 

 describes the appearance and gives biological details of these fungi. 



Wood-destroying fungi have been studied by Otto Bittmann,1[ both 



* Exper. Stat. Hawaiian Sugar PL Assoc, Bull. No. 6 (1909) 110 pp. (7 col. 

 pis. and 64 figs.). 



+ Ark. Bot. viii. No. 2 (1909) 18 pp. (2 pis. and 4 figs.). 



% Centralbl. Bakt., xxiv. (1909) pp. 196-8. § Tom. cit., pp. 208-13. 



|| Ann. Botanica, vii. (1908) H. 1. See also Centralbl. Bakt., xxiv. (1909) pp. 

 264-7. 



H Oesterr. Forst. Jagdzeit, xxvii. (1909) pp. 74-6, 84-5, 95-6, 135-6. See also 

 Centralbl. Bakt., xxiv. (1909) pp. 303-4. 



