RUBBER 683 



develops on badly dried rubber. No success was 

 obtained by artificial inoculation experiments. 



Isolation experiments were conducted in connection 

 with several other spots, usually resulting in Penicillium or 

 Eurotium spp. being obtained in pure culture. Though 

 no further inoculation experiments were performed the 

 writer concluded that the majority of species of fungi 

 causing spots in plantation rubber fall in these two 

 genera. This is not greatly in evidence in the work 

 described above. The work of O. T. 'Faulkner, B.A., 

 Mycologist to the Rubber Growers' Association, how- 

 ever, proves the validity of the above conclusion. During 

 the course of this work Faulkner published two private 

 and confidential reports, entitled " Spot Diseases in Pale 

 Crepe." To that author I am indebted for the following 

 information: "Five species of fungi were used success- 

 fully in artificial inoculations; three were species of 

 Penicillium; of the remaining two, one was a species of 

 Eurotium and the other Trichoderma koningi (Oudem.)." 



Bancroft has also proved by artificial inoculation that 

 Monascus heterosporus, Schrceter, was the cause of a 

 red spot in rubber. The writer has seen the fruit bodies 

 of this fungus in situ as described by Bancroft, so con- 

 firming the original observation. Also, Bancroft proved 

 that Bacillus prodigiosus can produce a discoloration in 

 rubber. 



Thus, of the species of fungi shown to be concerned 

 with spottings, the large majority fall in the two genera 

 Penicillium and Aspergillus (Eurotium). There are a 

 large number of species included in these two genera 

 which form a large proportion of those important 

 economically, being useful in the arts and manufactures 

 because of the changes which are brought about as a 

 result of the specific enzymes they are capable of pro- 

 ducing. The yeast family is also well known in this 

 respect, and the yeast-like form of Chromosporium 

 crustaceum is significant. Therefore, the fact that specific 

 enzymes might play a part in the economy of this problem 

 may be anticipated, and although time would not allow 

 any work to be performed upon this point, the assump- 

 tion of the presence of specific enzymes produced by these 



