E. J. BUTLER. 13 
freely in nature under suitable conditions. My trials have been 
made in the north of the Gangetic plain where I have never 
observed the disease to occur. 
Three other examples of Sclerospora disease of cultivated 
Graminee occur in India. 
The first of these is common in some places on Andropogon 
Sorghum (jowar), and I have collected it from several parts 
of the Bombay and Madras Presidencies. It is also the disease 
referred to in Madras by Mr. C. A. Barber (1904, p. 278), under the 
heading of “shredding of the leaves.’’ Any disease of this most 
important crop which holds the possibility of epidemic extension, 
as this certainly does, is worthy of note. 
It occurs frequently on low-lying land and does not appear 
to be easily detected on young plants. The affected plants become 
whitened at the top, irregular streaks forming in the upper leaves. 
Axillary branches are frequently deformed, a crowded bud being 
held imprisoned in the sheath of the subtending leaf, or the inter- 
nodes are shortened so that the leaves stand out ina fan-like man- 
ner. Later on the usual shredding occurs, from destruction of the 
parenchyma between the veins (plate IV, fig. 2). At this stage, or 
earlier, the oospores are distinctly visible to the naked eye as small 
reddish points, arranged in parallel rows. These have been found 
in the leaf blades only, not in the sheaths. The ears may or may 
not be affected. In many cases they are not formed at all. In 
others they are deformed and much reduced but without the pro- 
found alterations of the flowers seen in the ears of Pennisetum. Mr. 
Barber says that in attacked plants no grain is produced. Hence, 
complete sterility is possibly a feature of this disease, though I 
have not had sufficient opportunity to examine this question 
personally. No sporangium formation has been discovered. 
Anatomically the fungus occupies the leaf blade chiefly, having 
the same general distribution in the tissues as in Pennisetum. 
A dense fungus layer surrounds the bundles in advanced cases, 
lying outside the bundle sheath. In this the oospores are chiefly 
developed. The hyphe are not usually as large as in Pennisetum 
and are hence more difficult to see. Similarly the haustoria are 
