F. J. F. SlJAW. 



123 



' The disease caused some loss among the experiiuental plants 

 of the Economic Botanist. It was more or less restricted to pot 

 cultures of special varieties and did not attack desi cotton in the 

 field. The attack was of brief duration but nearly all the pots 

 showed diseased plants ; some of the plants attacked recovered 

 and in this case a dry brown spot persisted on the stem. A second 

 attack on the same plant never takes place. The seedlings seem to 

 be susceptible only when (piite young ; by the time they are planted 

 out in the field there is no danger of attack ; thus deaths were plenti- 

 ful at the commencement, but ceased after the first few days when 

 seedlings were too old to be attacked. Towards the close of the out- 

 break several completely withered and diseased seedhngs were col- 

 lected. They all showed hyphse of Rhizoctonia and in one case scle- 

 rotia were found on a blackened area at the base of the hypocotyl 

 (cf. Jute seedling, PL I. Fig. 1). The sclerotia (PL VIII, Fig. 1, 

 PL IX. Fig. 2) were rounded bodies, exactly like the sclerotia on jute 

 but rather smaller, the average diameter being about 90 f,. The 

 diameter of the hyphaj varied from 6-10,,. Separate cultures were 

 obtained from sclerotia and hypha3 ; in both cases the result was a 

 Rhizoctonia exactly resembling that on jute. Text Fig. Ill, 1, shows 



Te:.t Fii:, III.-R. solaXi Iv'uh^ 



