60 REPORT OF THE AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH 



reason to hope that similar results can be obtained in India 

 by hybridization. 



Three minor sugarcane diseases, caused by undescribed 

 species of fungi, have also been under study, and the work 

 was advanced sufficiently by the end of the year to allow 

 of the results being written up. One of these, occurring at 

 Samalkota and Jorhat, is possibly that referred to in last 

 year's report as resembling sereh. They will be more fully 

 dealt with in the next report. 



Phytophthora investigations. 



Mr. J. F. Dastur, First Assistant, completed his iuvesti- 

 gations of a new species of this destructive genus, which 

 was found attacking castor, and published a detailed de- 

 scription of it in the Memoirs. The parasite causes the 

 most injurious fungal disease of this crop known, and is 

 especially harmful to eri-silk worm breeders. On seedling 

 plants it causes a " damping off," which may affect 30 to 40 

 per cent, of the seedlings; older plants are attacked chiefly 

 in the leaves. A full account of the morphology of the 

 parasite is given, the chief interest centring in the dis- 

 covery of a new type of reproduction. Shortly before the 

 publication of the paper, this discovery was anticipated by 

 a British Mycologist, working with an allied species. The 

 growth of the fungus in artificial culture was successfully 

 attempted. A very complete series of inoculation experi- 

 ments was carried out, potato, tomato, brinjal, til and 

 several other plants proving susceptible to attack. 



The study of Colocasia blight (caused by Phytophthora 

 Colocasice Rac.) was commenced by Mr. G. S. Kulkarni, 

 Mycological Assistant of the Bombay Department, when a 

 student at Pusa in 1909, and completed by myself during 

 the year. We published a joint account of it in the 

 Memoirs, giving details of the characters of the disease and 

 the morphology and biology of the fungus. The intensity 

 of the attack is closely dependent on the character of the 

 monsoon, being worst in wet years. In addition to the 

 already known damage caused by rotting the leaves, the 



