195 
Summary. 
The injury was due to the fruit being subjected to too high a 
temperature during the first period of ripening. Whether this 
occurred previous to, or during the voyage could not be 
determined. 
The fact that the lower half of each apple that was buried In 
the packing material remained perfectly free from disease, 
suggests that if the fruit was completely covered with packing 
material so as to exclude the free access of air. no injury would 
be sustained. 
Melon Disease. 
When first received, small, roundish, pale brown patches were 
present in scattered groups on the surface of the rind. Diseased 
portions were removed and placed under conditions favourable for 
further development ; the diseased patches continued to increase 
in size, changed to a dark brown colour, and became slightly 
depressed, and within ten days were covered with a minutely 
velvety blackish-olive mould, which proved on examination to be 
Mftrrosjiorium sarcinuht, l>erk., first met with many years ago on 
the rind of a gourd. At the present day it frequently occurs on 
imported melons, and appears to be widely distributed. The 
conidia or reproductive bodies of this black mould are produced 
in immense quantities, and are scattered by wind, inserts, etc.; 
those that happen to alight on a young melon infect the fruit, and 
produce a new centre of disease, from which conidia are distributed 
in turn ; hence, when once introduced, the disease sprea Is quickly 
unless preventive measures are promptly resorted to. 
Experiments proved that the conidia of the black mould would 
also grow and produce fruit on different kinds of decaying 
vegetable matter ; the conidia thus produced would also be 
capable of infecting young melons. 
After the black mould has disappeared, a second form of fruit 
belonging to the same fungus is produced in the substance of the 
dead rind. The spores of this second form of fruit only germinate 
after a lengthened period of rest, and presumably, as in numerous 
other well-known instances, these resting-spores are dispersed and 
germinate about the time when the plant they attack is in full 
growth. Such spores would be the first to infect the young 
melons, and give origin to the black mould, which m turn 
continues the disease throughout the period of growth of the 
host-plant. 
Summary. 
Cleanliness, as in the case of every disease, is of primary 
importance. Decaying vegetable matter of every kind, so far as 
practicable, should be removed and buried. Diseased melons 
should not be allowed to rot and decay on the ground, otherwise 
a crop of spores will be produced which may result in disaster the 
following season. 
On the first indication of disease the entire crop should be 
sprayed with a fungicide. The surrounding ground should also 
