Fungous Disi;Asrs of Plants, Peach Yi-llows 171 



daniaucd crops of melons last summer. Want to know all about it. I 

 should feci happier if I had just the class in fun^i and no otiier teai^hing 

 to do. . . . 



Smith supp^licd Spaldini; with many specimens of diseased plants 

 for study. Desiderata from the professor sometimes listed as many 

 as a dozen and a half special requests, and the young Department 

 scientist advised him of newly discovered ailments. He sent to the 

 laboratory grape-vine stems and leaves from California showing 

 an " obscure " malady which Newton B. Pierce was to study. A. C. 

 rvclcshymer was to begin his important special study of Plas- 

 modiophora.'^ By the end of the year Spalding had prepared a 

 general account of Plasmodiophora, had finished numerous special 

 investigations, written up the Peronosporeae, and was starting the 

 Uredmeae. He wrote Smith December 27th, 1888: 



The class in fungi are workers to the last degree. [Frederick Charles] 

 Newcombe will take up the Black Knot and carry on its study through 

 the winter, reviewing all of Farlow's statements and extending our knowl- 

 edge of the subject if possible. [N. B.] Pierce is working on germination 

 of Phytophthora and wiU continue for a time. There is reason to believe 

 that no one has ever given a full account of the extraordinary changes that 

 precede the formation of zoospores — and afterwards will probably study 

 the changes that pine wood undergoes in becoming " punky." Waples 

 is to study the germination of Puccinia graminis and the relation of this 

 fungus to its host, particularly the penetration of the wheat, the time of 

 germination, the capability of the uredo spores of functioning as resting 

 spores, whether the mycelium is perennial etc. 



Already Spalding had seen one laboratory research produce still 

 further promising results. Physiological and anatomical study of 

 pine woods begun under his direction by Filibert Roth so interested 

 Bernhard Eduard Fernow, chief of the Division of Forestry of 

 the United States Department of Agriculture, that Fernow visited 

 Ann Arbor and authorized Roth to go on with the investigations. 

 "' rW]hat I did in the study of the quality' of coniferous woods," 

 wrote Spalding to Smith, " resulted in Mr. Roth's taking up a 

 most important investigation." Spalding had begun the study of 

 the mechanical and physiological properties of economically valu- 

 able American timbers. Roth continued the work which formed 

 a basis for his later important timber physics research in the 

 Department of Agriculture. 



''^ ]ournd of Mycology 7 (2): 79 et seq., 1892. 



