PARASITIC RHIZOCTONIAS IN AMERICA 311 



twenty-five plants of sweet alyssum growing in two and one-half inch 

 pots were found to be diseased. The plants were tall and had fallen 

 over from their own weight, so that they formed a mat over the pots. 

 On close examination the soil and plants were found to be covered 

 with the strands of brown mycelium which are characteristic of 7?. 

 Solani. A number of these plants died, while on the stems of others 

 the fungus formed small lesions near the surface of the soil. The fun- 

 gus continued to grow 011 diseased plants placed in the field, and 

 killed a few more of them. 



AMARANTHUS 



Specimens of Rhizoctonia on Amarantlms retroflexus were received 

 from Mr. W. H. Burkholder of Cornell University. The mycelium of 

 the Corticium stage could be easily recognized on the stems, while the 

 Rhizoctonia stage was plentiful on the lower part of the plant. A cul- 

 ture was obtained from scrapings made from the mycelium of the Cor- 

 ticium stage. Several spores Avere found and one basidium showing 

 the four sterigmata was observed. 



Duggar and Stewart 32 reported the occurrence of Rhizoctonia on 

 Amaranfhus retroflexus (pigweed) and A. albus (tumble-weed) in 

 New York in 1901. Several years later Rolfs 95 found the perfect 

 stage, Corticium vayum, in Florida on A. retroflexus and A. spinosus. 



ASPARAGUS, ORNAMENTAL, Asparagus sprengeri 



Duggar and Stewart 32 observed the effects of Rhizoctonia on a 

 number of plants of ornamental asparagus. They found that the 

 plants were killed and that many of the leaves were bound to each 

 other by the brown threads of the Rhizoctonia hyphag. 



ASTER, CHINA, Callisteplms liortensis 



Damping-off of aster seedlings was noticed in flats in the floricul- 

 tural greenhouses in the spring of 1913 and again in 1914. The dis- 

 ease first appeared as a small, brown spot on one side of the seedling 

 at the surface of the soil. This lesion increased in size until the seed- 

 ling fell over. After a number of seedlings were prostrated, the fun- 

 gus spread over them, and in time a mat of mycelium covered the sur- 

 face of the soil. 



In May, 1914, a number of aster plants, four to five inches high, 

 were planted in old soil in which several varieties of carnation plants 

 had been growing during the winter. There had been more or less 

 stem rot among these plants all the season. After a month, when the 

 aster plants were about 6 inches high, they began dying off and con- 

 tinued to die until they were from 9 to 12 inches high and ready to 



