<x 
J. F. DASTUR 135 
Inoculation experiments. 
All the inoculations were done with cultures originally started from a 
single spore, 
Chiles. Seedlings grown im sterilized tubes containing moist cotton 
plugs from seeds removed aseptically from healthy chilli pods were inoculated 
either with spores or with hyphe. The effect of the inoculations was noticed 
in three or four days by the moculated parts turning brown. 
spread rapidly and killed the seedlings in a couple of days ; Vermicularia 
acervuli were produced in abundance. The success of the inoculations and the 
spread of the mfection depended upon the amount of moisture present in the 
tubes. HH there was not sufficient moisture when the seedlings were 
inoculated, the inoculations did not take. If after the infections had started, 
the amount of moisture was reduced below a certain limit, the spread of the 
disease was checked. 
Growing points and flowers of plants raised in pots were imoculated 
and kept under bell jars in the laboratory. 
The infection 
The inoculations im some 
cases failed, and im others where the infection had started it did not make 
much progress ; but if the inoculated plants were kept in a moist atmosphere 
by covering the inside of the bell jars with moist blottmg paper, the 
inoculations imvariably succeeded and the infection spread rapidly, killing 
back the plant. The first signs of successful infection are the turning brown 
and rotting of the inoculated growing pomt or flower. As the mfection 
spreads, the plant gradually dies back. Inoculations done on unwounded 
woody parts of the stem were unsuccessful ; wounded parts could be inoculated 
but not as readily and rapidly as the growing points and flowers. 
Mature pods were readily infected but not the green fruits. 
Microtomic ‘sections of inoculated peds show that the hyphae enter the 
skin directly or through natural cracks in the thick cuticle (Plate H, figs. 1 and 
2) im the former case the hyphe form an appressorium before entermg the 
anbroken cuticle, unlike those attacking the seed coat ; a very fine process 
which penetrates the cuticle is produced from this appressorium. As* long as 
the hypha is in the cuticle it remains exceedingly fine (Plate I, figs. 2 aud 3) ; 
but it swells up to its normal size when it enters an epidermal cell 
(Plate II, fig. 2). It sometimes gets branched when within the cuticle. 
Seeds of chillies have also been successfully inoculated. In the early 
stage of infection the seeds became rusty brown, Acervuli and sclerotia 
were formed on the seed coat and in the inner tissues as well under moist 
conditions, 
