EXPERIMENTS ON THE DECAY OF FLORIDA ORANGES. 23 



it was thought possi])le that under certain unknown conditions the 

 fungus may actually be present in the original melanose spots and 

 by further growth mduce a development of stellate spots and fmally 

 produce spores and thus mfect the new growth of leaves, fruits, and 

 shoots. These stellate melanose spots have been studied carefully 

 in thin sections, but fungus mycelium could not always be found in 

 them, although some was often present. The accompanying illus- 



FiG. 2. — Stellate melanose spots on upper side of orange leaf, showing the older circular spots in the 

 center. Magnified about 7^ diameters. Photographed by Dr. Albert Mann. 



trations (figs. 2 and 3) give a fair idea of the stellate spots as they 

 appear under an ordmary magnifying glass. 



EXPERIMENTS TO DETERMINE THE CAUSE OF DECi».Y. 



Since the general opinion prevailed, both among the growers and 

 shippers, that the rot was chiefly due to Penicillium or mold and 

 because the heavy decay was confined to groves that had melanosed 

 and ammoniated fruit, it seemed worth while to determine what 

 relation could be shown to exist between those rind diseases and 

 decay. 



A TEST AT ORLANDO. 



In order to make a preliminary test, bright, ammoniated, and 



melanosed oranges were carefully picked in early February near 



Orlando, Fla., and sprayed with blue-mold spores obtained from 



hly decayed oranges secured from a packing house near the 



Ml-. 124] 



