124 Early Work in North America 



[he] saw come to rest at 10:20 gradually acquired a well-defined wall and 

 two large vacuoles with a thin central wall of protoplasm between them. 

 This cell remained nearly the same till about 11:00 when the protoplasm 

 gathered over to one side from which a small, short protuberance pushed 

 out. This protuberance enlarged slightly but showed no further change 

 up to 12:00 o'clock. 



He found on November 2 in a petiole of Geranium maculatiim 

 great numbers of round crystals. Boiling in HCl [hydrochloric 

 acid] entirely freed the tissues of them. Treatment with strong 

 Acetic acid had no effect." He concluded " them to be oxalate 

 of lime." 



Field, as well as laboratory, investigations were combined in 

 his investigations. Early the next spring Garfield wrote Smith and 

 offered to arrange to have published in August a paper by Smith 

 on the grape rot. Smith replied that it was " a difficult subject 

 and we shall not feel like publishing until we have gone to the 

 bottom of it if it takes two years." Their observations had begun 

 in October and he wanted to continue them at least until fall. 



We find a half dozen or more sorts of fungi on the grape vine and 

 frequently several together on the same vine. The problem is to tell 

 which ones rot the berries i. e., to discriminate between the parasites and 

 the saprophytes which follow the ferment very closely. In due time I trust 

 we may be able to separate the sheep from the goats or at least to tell 

 them apart. We shall not be ready to publish till we have settled a number 

 of points now in dispute. 



Three fungi were known to cause " rot " in grapes: Peronospora 

 viticola causing mildew; Glososporiiiin amelophagum causing 

 anthracnose, a malady studied by Burrill in Illinois and by others; 

 and Phoma uvkola, the cause of black rot. Smith discovered an 

 ascosporus form of Phoma iivicola, and this find was mentioned 

 that year by F. Lamson Scribner, chief of the Mycological Section 

 of the United States Department of Agriculture, in a paper on 

 "' Black Rot — Physalospora Bidicelin." ^^^ In grapes, destroyed 

 the previous year by black-rot, gathered from the vine, and kept 

 for a week in a moist chamber, Smith found "an abundance of 

 the ascosporus form," and Scribner said, " His camera drawings 

 also clearly show the presence of paraphyses, organs not observed 

 by Mr. [J. B.] Ellis nor myself." 



""^ Proc. Ith Ann. Meet. Soc. Prom. Agric. Sc:., 82, 87 footnote, 1886. 



