174 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIII. No. 1101 



Nikko and other places chestnut trees affected 

 by a fungus whicli appeared identical witli 

 Endothia ■parasitica in this country. Miss 

 Westerdijk also stated that she had collected 

 specimens of the fungus but these specimens 

 with many of her other collections were lost 

 at sea. 



Following this the writers endeavored to ob- 

 tain specimens of the chestnut-blight parasite 

 by correspondence. Among those to whom the 

 request was sent was Mr. H. Loomis, of Yoko- 

 hama, who very kindly interested himself in 

 the matter, and on February 18 wrote as 

 follows : 



In compliance with your request of January 4 I 

 have eommunieated with Professor Y. Kozai, of 

 the Imperial Agricultural Station, Nishigahara, 

 Tokyo, and he writes that "The chestnut blight 

 is found to some extent in the Provinces of Tamba, 

 Ise, Suruga and Shimotsuke (Nikko is in the lat- 

 ter). This disease is limited to the seedlings in 

 the nursery and the young trees (three or four 

 years old) in the field and may be prevented by 

 spraying with Bordeaux mixture." 



I have requested him to procure specimens of 

 the fungus and send the same to you directly. I 

 hope this will meet your desire. . . . 



Soon after this a packet of three specimens 

 of fungi on chestnut bark was received from 

 Professor T. Kozai with a letter stating that 

 they were " specimens of the Japanese chest- 

 nut canker." None of these proved to be 

 Endothia parasitica, but one specimen col- 

 lected October 14, 1915, in the province of 

 Totomi by S. Tsuiuta, and labeled " Cancer on 

 chestnut," was evidently an Endothia, which 

 after careful study of stromata, pycnospores 

 and cultures on various media the vTriters are 

 convinced is identical with the oval-spored 

 species of Endothia found both in this coun- 

 try and in Europe and referred to in their 

 earlier paper* as Endothia radicalis (Schw.) 

 De Not. The other two specimens sent by 

 Professor Kozai showed no Endothia but two 

 other Pyrenomycetes. 



* Shear, C. L., and Stevens, Neil E., "Cultural 

 Characters of the Chestnut -blight Fungus and Its 

 Near Relatives," Circ. No. 131, B. P. I., Dept. 

 Agr., July 5, 1913. 



Shortly before the specimens above referred 

 to were received from Japan a number of speci- 

 mens of Japanese chestnut from California 

 were turned over to the writers for study. 

 These were part of a shipment from the Yoko- 

 hama Nursery Co., Yokohama, Japan, eon- 

 signed to the Sunset Nursery, Oakland, Cal., 

 which were condemned in February, 1915, by 

 Frederick Maskew, chief deputy quarantine 

 officer, San Francisco, Cal., upon recommenda- 

 tion of Dr. E. P. Meineeke, forest pathologist, 

 U. S. Department of Agriculture, stationed 

 in that city. In his letter recommending the 

 destruction of this nursery stock Dr. Meineeke 

 called attention to the presence of a fungus ap- 

 parently parasitic which " in the absence of 

 other fruiting forms must be classed with the 

 fungi imperfecti (Cytospora species.)" Of 

 100 plants examined Dr. Meineeke found 43 

 infected with this fungus. A number of the 

 infected trees were turned over to the writers 

 by the Federal Horticultural Board and bear 

 their plant disease survey number 264. 



The writers have had the fungus referred to 

 by Dr. Meineeke in cultirre since early in 

 April, 1915, and have made inoculations on 

 the native American chestnut (Castanea 

 dentata) but thus far have been unable to ob- 

 tain ascospores or any evidence of parasitism 

 on Castanea dentata. 



In addition to this fungus two of the Japan- 

 ese seedlings received from California showed 

 a few tiny, yellow ochre pycnidial stromata, 

 smaller than but closely resembling in form 

 and color those of Endothia radicalis. A care- 

 ful study of the pycnidia, pycnospores and cul- 

 tures of this fungus on various media has con- 

 vinced the writers that this also is a species of 

 Endothia having quite different cultural char- 

 acters from any species yet known. 



Mr. Walter T. Swingle during his recent 

 visit to Japan obtained a small portion of a 

 specimen which was exhibited as chestnut- 

 blight. This specimen which was given him 

 by Dr. Nishida is not an Endothia, but so far 

 as can be determined from cultures appears to 

 be identical with the imperfect fungus foimd 

 on the Japanese chestnuts condemned at San 

 Francisco in February, 1915. 



