105 



starch had been added by the person treating the disease or by a 

 dealer unbeknown to the buyer, but think it best to call attention to 

 the matter for the reason that the adulteration of sulphur with starch 

 could be easily accomplished and not easily detected, except by 

 microscopic examination. 



I should not mention this matter if it were not for the fact that the 

 disease in the above-mentioned case appeared to be Oidium, and that 

 a proper treatment had apparently failed to ward off the bad effects 

 of the disease as it should have done. 



If any grower is interested by these remarks, and wishes the sulphur 

 he uses to be examined, that could be done if he would forward to the 

 Department of Agriculture a sample of the sulphur in the form in 

 which he proposes to use it. 



Fungi grow from Cuttings. 



The spores of fungi are so often mentioned as their organs of 

 propagation that it might seem to a non-expert that they were the 

 only means of propagation. This is far from being the case. Just as 

 in the higher plant species may be propagated by cuttings and by 

 layering and by grafting, so among fungi there are ways of multiplying 

 quite apart from the spores, though these latter are the more usual 

 propagating forms. 



An illustration of this feature of fungus life is presented in the 

 illustration, in which we behold a " cutting" from a fungus in the act of 

 throwing out " roots/' a method of some importance in the life history 

 of some fungi. Here we have the stalks of a species of Alt&rnaria 

 " germinating " much as if they were spores. If these stalks, which 



Fig. 122. Growth in water cul- 

 ture of mycelium from the 

 old aerial hyphae of the 

 Alternaria of the quince, 

 showing that these, as well 

 as the spores, may spread the 

 disease. 



are produced in enormous numbers on the surface of some diseased 

 plants, are torn loose, and transferred to a favourable place, they have 

 the power to grow and continue the life of the pest in a vigorous 

 manner. 



