1895.] MICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL. 53 



from mould. In falling from the tree apples are fre- 

 quently penetrated by stubble making wounds called 

 straw holes. These I have found mostly filled with 

 mould and if penetrating to the seed cavity, investing it 

 also with the same growth. 



I have found exceptions to this, however, in which the 

 straw had penetrated to the seed cavity and no mould 

 followed, but the reason for this seemed to be in the na- 

 ture of the wound, the straw still remaining and really 

 leaving no opening between the seed cavity and the 

 outer air. My examinations began in February and 

 continued well into April, or as long as my apples lasted, 

 for by this time they were decaying badly. Those with 

 spots of decay beginning at the surface and extending 

 only partly through the body showed no mould in the 

 seed cavity, but where the decay reached the core mould 

 usually followed. Those entirely decayed were covered 

 with numerous colonies of mould which invariably in- 

 vested the seed cavity. 



The growth of which I have spoken as " common blue 

 mould is Penicillium crustaceum instead of Aspergillus 

 fflaucus as I at first supposed, th'e latter being a stage of 

 the common herbarium mould, Eurothim herharioru7n. 



To summarize : The cottony growth is a modification 

 of the normal cells of the apple. 



The cells that grow out into hairs, belong more par- 

 ticularly to the walls of the seed cavity than to the 

 softer parts, but it is difiicult to draw a line between 

 these two classes of cells as they grade so closely into 

 each other. 



The spores from which originates the blue mould 

 found in the seed cavity may fall upon any part of the 

 apple's surface. If lodging in an open pip, or blossom 

 end, they may germinate and send their mycelium into 

 the seed cavity where fructification is completed. Open 

 pips account for but a portion of mouldy cores. 



