area, usually, though by no means always, surrounding the remains 

 of the pistil. On making a cross section this watery condition is 

 found to be confined to the portion immediately under the skin. It 

 usually does not involve the tissues to any great depth, even after it 

 has extended so as to cover a considerable surface area. Growth of 

 the fruit over the infected area stops, so that after a few days the 

 spot seems somewhat sunken. If the tomato is nearly ripe, maturity 

 will be hastened and the watery spot may dry down so as to look as 

 if the fruit had been slightly seared with a hot iron. The greater 

 number of infections take place when the fruit is about an inch in 

 diameter. The disease may invade the entire surface, causing the fruit 

 to fall, or the premature ripening of the lower portion may arrest it, 

 when the partially dried diseased portion often becomes blackened 

 by a velvety growth of the Alternaria. In the early morning drops 

 of sticky exudation were observed on the spots of half-grown rotten 

 fruit. These were found to be swarming with bacteria, which were 

 found abundantly within the diseased tissues. Sound green toma- 

 toes under a bell-jar were inoculated with a pure culture prepared 

 from the exudate. In all cases they showed signs of rot within 

 twenty-four hours. When agar containing the germs was smeared 

 on the surface of sound tomatoes, no rotting took place even after a 

 number of days. The disease cannot be contracted through the 

 flowers, as is the case in pear blight. The stigmas of many open 

 flowers were smeared with cultures of the germ without inducing a 

 single case. In no case were inoculations successful where the fruit 

 was less than one centimeter in diameter. It grows on ripe toma- 

 toes, but less readily than on green ones. It seems to be strictly 

 aerobic." 



From the abundance of thrips on the fruit, he concluded that in- 

 sects may be the means of dispersal of the germ. 



William Stuart 5 , of the Indiana station, reported a tomato disease 

 in 1900, which, he says, " resembles in many respects that caused by 

 Macrosporium solani." He attributes the rot to a motile bacillus 

 found in the tissue. He is doubtful, however, of having isolated it, 

 as inoculated fruit developed a watery rot with an offensive odor, 

 which soon decomposed the fruit completely. The natural " spot " 

 was perfectly clean, and is described as a watery discoloration, which 

 afterward dried down. 



