stems, hence Massee concluded that while Melanconmm was a para- 

 site it was only a wound parasite. In his own words lie demonstrated 

 conclusively that the fungus called Trichosphaeria saccJiari (the Me- 

 lanconium stage) can effect an entrance into healthy tissue quite in- 

 dependently of the agency of "shot-borer" or "moth-borer." 



"Although a true parasite, in the sense of destroying perfectly 

 healthy tissues, the fungus almost invariably commences as a sapro- 

 phyte. ' ' 



Besides IMassee, Went made inoculation experiments to demon- 

 strate the parasitism of this fungus. As before remarked, however, 

 we cannot be certain that the Melanconium, with which he worked is 

 identical with that of the West Indies. With the fungus wdth which 

 he was dealing he made inoculations into slits made into sound canes ; 

 the mycelium developed in the cells surrounding the slits, but in 

 no case (9 experiments) did it attack the healthy tissue of the cane. 

 Later he sterilized pieces of sugar cane by keeping them in a flame 

 for some time ; he then divided them longitudinally with a sterilized 

 knife and placed them in a sterilized glass box. On the cut surface 

 he placed some of his Melanconium spores, but out of ten experi- 

 ments only three finally showed pycnidia, and this was on dying 

 cane. Thus Went does not consider Melanconium, or whatever fun- 

 gus he was working with, to be parasitic. 



So far as publications show Howard has been the only other one 

 to test the parasitism of the rind fungus. He published a report 

 (21) of his experiments in 1900, in which he split open healthy 

 unsterilized canes and inoculated them with Melanconium spores, 

 and with mycelium developed from a pure culture. Five days after- 

 wards both micro- and macroconidia developed. Later, however, 

 Howard (20) decided that these micro- and macroconidia had no 

 genetic connection with the Melanconium spores, as they appeared 

 as frequently on control canes as on the inoculated ones. In his 

 early experiments he had concluded that Melanconium Avas parasitic 

 as some infection had resulted. As the infection did not s])read, 

 however, more than three inches above and below in three months' 

 time, and as the canes showed none of the typical appearance of the 

 disease he concluded to repeat the experiment. The results are set 

 forth in the last publication cited. 



Experiment I. — On November 27 eighteen healthy Bourbon canes 

 were selected, of which six were used as controls and twelve for inocu- 

 lation at wounds, six with Melanconium spores from a pure culture 

 and six with similar spores and food material. The places where the 

 wounds were made were cleaned with alcohol and flamed with a spirit 



