29 



aud the cylinder removed. It suielledlike a soap barrel. The interior 

 of the cylinder and of the stroma were alkaline, and also the beads of 

 water excreted from it. There were very few i)erithecia. On the 

 twenty-fifth day the remaining- tube, which received the least alkali, was 

 fruited rather sparingly, and thepcrithecia were red, but not ripe. In 

 places the stroma was brown and destitute of perithecia; in other places 

 it was grayish-white and destitute. In the tubes which received the 

 most alkali the potato was now covered with a coi)ious, puffed-up, 

 tough, wrinkled, extensive stroma, which had become brown (color of 

 of ascospores) since the last record. Some of this stronui was dug out 

 and examined. The brown color was lodged in the walls of a closely 

 felted mycelium. From this brown mycelium projected many short, 

 colorless hyi)hu', and these bore numerous non-septate, colorless, ellip- 

 tical microconidia. Here and there were small masses of pseudo- 

 parenchyma, probably the beginnings of perithecia, but nothing large 

 enough to be distinguished by shape, even under the compound micro- 

 scope, as perithecia by anj'one not conversant with the method of origin 

 of these bodies. In other words, the alkali did not hinder a copious 

 development of stroma and an abundant formation of microconidia, but 

 did hinder the growth of the perithecia. At the end of 47 days, dur- 

 ing which there had been no development of ])erithecia in either of 

 the tubes which received the larger (piantity of alkali, one of them 

 was opened and 4 c. c. of sterile 2 per cent malic acid water pipetted 

 into it. At this time the potato was covered all over and hidden by 

 a copious wrinkled stroma, which was brown on one side and about 

 normal in color on the other. The next day (February 1) the acid was 

 entirely neutralized, and the fluid around the cylinder still gave a dis- 

 tinctly alkaline reaction, although less than before. The mouth of the 

 tube was now flamed and the fluid poured out. On February 5, as 

 soon as it could be prepared, 5 c. c, of sterile 1 per cent malic acid water 

 was added to this tube, i. e., enough to cover the cylinder. On testing 

 with litmus after adding, the fluid gave a strong acid reaction. On 

 February G there was no reaction to blue litmus, but a slight alkaline 

 one with neutral litmus. An additional 5 c. c. of the 1 per cent malic 

 acid water was therefore added, aud in a few minutes bubbles of gas 

 again began to arise. On February 7 the fluid was again tested, found 

 plainly acid, and poured oft". The cylinder was not, however, fully 

 neutralized, for on February 10 the small amount of fluid in the bottom 

 of the tube was again plainly alkaline. The cylinder was therefore 

 covered once more with G c. c. of sterile 2 per cent malic acid water. This 

 was poured off' after 24 hours aud the tube set away. Up to February 

 15 there were no perithecia visible in this tube, although it had been 

 62 days since the tube was inoculated and 5 days since the last of the 

 alkali was removed. Ten days later, however, the stroma (both the 

 brown and the yellow jiarts) was slightly frosted over with white 

 hyphae, recently formed, and bore several hundred pale coral-red peri- 



