202 NEW SDGARCANE DISEASES 



mycelium in the living tissues indicates a certain degree of para- 

 sitic activity. 



In three other tubs, the main canes of which had been injured 

 and in which a " ratoon" crop was growing, inoculations similar 

 to those of the second series at Samalkota, were made in Decem- 

 ber 1909, the exposed roots being watered with a suspension of 

 the fungus. No outward sign of disease appeared, and the follow- 

 ing April the stools were uprooted, as also that in the control 

 tub. AW were found perfectly healthy and no trace of the parasite 

 could be detected in the tissues. 



It seems probable, therefore, that the disease is restricted in 

 its distribution by climatic or other unknown conditions, as so 

 many of the fungus blights of crops in India are. How much 

 damage is caused by it is unknown. Both at Samalkota and 

 Jorhat it was enough to cause uneasiness, but in the latter case it 

 is still uncertain whether there are not two diseases at work. If 

 it should be found that the condition observed at Jorhat, in the 

 Central Provinces, and elsewhere, of excessive tillering, combined 

 with degeneration of the plant, sometimes to such an extent that 

 no true canes at all are formed, the whole plant remaining grass- 

 like, is caused by this parasite, then it will have to be reckoned 

 as a serious disease. Meanwhile, further investigations are in 

 progress and it is hoped that the publication of the present des- 

 cription will lead to the recognition of the disease, where it occurs, 

 and fuller observations on its field characters. It is obviously 

 impossible, at present, to suggest methods for its check beyond 

 the ordinary precautions urged on previous occasions for routine 

 observance in sugarcane cultivation in India. 



Description of Plates III, IV and V, 



{llendersonina Sacchari, Butl. ) 

 Plate 111. 

 fig. 1, Section of a sclerotium of Hftidersonina Sacchari. piubably funtied by llic 

 union of several unilocular strouiata. Each cavity is surrounded by a 

 separate pseudo-parenchyuiatous wall, between which the structure is 

 lilatueutous. A mass of spores of both types is extruding from the 

 mouth of the left-hand cavity. 



