to have been done under sterile conditions. After twelve days the 

 nutrient solution was croAvded with mycelium bearing both forms 

 of conidia, that is, the micro- and the maerospores. Further IMassee 

 took internal portions of diseased cane near the apex and placed 

 them in a nutrient solution, care being taken to prevent the acci- 

 dental introduction of other fungi. There resulted rapid growth of 

 the hyphae and eventual formation of macroconidia. 



An inoculation experiment was next carried out by introducing 

 Melanconium conidia upon the base of an old leaf -sheath of cane 

 six feet high. After twenty days IMelanconium spores were pro- 

 duced. At the same time a small portion of diseased cane containing 

 hyphae of the Melanconium stage were introduced into a slit made 

 into a cane stalk. ^Mature fruit burst out of the cane after twenty- 

 two days. Eight days later this cane was split open and it was 

 found that at the joint where inoculation was performed by wound- 

 ing the cane, the mycelium had produced the large macroconidia in 

 the decaying tissue. No macroconidia were present at the point where 

 infection took place through a dead-leaf base. 



An inoculation experiment was made by placing tlie macroconidia 

 on the basal part of the upper surface of a Yery young leaf; in 

 five days the infected area became a deep red, and in fourteen days 

 a dense pile of conidiophores appeared on the surface bearing micro- 

 conidia. Internal macroconidia were not found. Nothing was said 

 by Massee about the presence of Melanconium spores. 



Another inoculation was made by placing macroconidia on the 

 broken surface of a lateral shoot which had been broken off close to 

 the stem. In fourteen days microconidia were formed, but no macro- 

 conidia. and no mention is made of Melanconium spores. 



Two more experiments showed practically tJie same results, the 

 macroconidia, however, being found in one case. 



An inoculation made with microconidia produced ])oth the miero- 

 and macroconidia but no Melanconium spores. 



Neither Massee 's flask cultures nor his inoculation experiments 

 can be taken as any proof that the Melanconium spores are in any 

 way connected with either the micro- or macrospore forms. 



Massee found two mature perithecia on a much decayed portion 

 of a cane received from Barbados; they sprang from a point that 

 had previously borne a crop of microconidia and were surrounded 

 by old collapsed conidiophores, the conidia having disappeared. 

 ^Fassee says "although the evidence in favor of a genetic connection 

 between the perithecia found on the cane and the microconidia with 

 which they were associated, was strong, yet it could not be accepted 



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