Pebedaky 4, 1916] 



SCIENCE 



175 



From a study of these few specimens it is 

 evident that there are in Japan several Pyre- 

 nomyeetes including species of Endothia more 

 or less parasitic on chestnut. This fact may 

 help to explain the failure of Japanese pathol- 

 ogists to distinguish the true chestnut blight 

 caused by Endothia parasitica. Dr. Gentaro 

 Tamada on his recent visit, July, 1915, to this 

 country, informed the writers that the numer- 

 ous publications concerning the chestnut- 

 blight in the United States had naturally 

 aroused the interests of Japanese pathologists 

 but that so far they had been unable to find 

 any parasitic Endothia. This is further veri- 

 fied by a paper in Japanese^ by Kanesuke Hara, 

 an abstract of which has been kindly furnished 

 us by Dr. T. Tanaka. Hara considers that 

 Endothia gyrosa (Schw.) Fuck, must be iden- 

 tical with E. parasitica (Murr.) A. & A. He 

 describes a species of Endothia found on a 

 dead twig of Quercus glandulifera BL, which 

 he regards as Endothia gyrosa. This report 

 indicates that species of Endothia occur in 

 Japan upon Quercus as well as on Oastanea. 

 We have just received pycnidia of an Endothia 

 on chestnut from Mt. Hara labelled E. gyroza? 

 which in culture appears different from any 

 species yet cultured by the writers. 



Having failed to obtain a specimen of 

 Endothia parasitica by correspondence and 

 learning that Mr. Meyer was to visit Japan on 

 his return from China, the writers re- 

 quested Mr. David Fairchild, agricultural ex- 

 plorer in charge of foreign seed and plant 

 introduction, to send a cablegram asking him 

 to look for the chestnut blight in the vicinity 

 of Nikko. Meyer's observations in Japan are 

 best given by quotations from his letters: 



Sept. 17. Frid. In Nikko . . . found plenty 

 of evidences of the chestnut-blight, especially on 

 the higher, more exposed parts of the mountains; 

 collected a large bundle of material, took several 

 fotos. . . .6 



5 Hara, Kanesuke, "Further Discussion Must 

 tie Needed on the Problem of the Chestnut-blight 

 Disease, 'Byoehfl-gai Zassi' " {Journal of Plant 

 Protection), Yol. 2, No. 3, March, 1915, pp. 242- 

 245 (Japanese). 



« Some of the pictures of blighted chestnuts 

 taken by Meyer at Nikko will be published later. 



Sund. Sept. 19. In Yokohama; . . . inspected 

 grafted and budded nursery stock, especially chest- 

 nuts and cherries, found them exceptionally clean. 

 No signs of Biaportlie parasitica on chestnut seed- 

 ling and grafted stock, although the wild trees of 

 Castanea japotiica on the hills surrounding the 

 nurseries are infested with the blight. 



Mond. Sept. 20. In Yokohama; . . . The chest- 

 nut-blight, Diaporthe parasitica, is quite common 

 in Japan, that is at least around Nikko, Tokyo 

 and Yokohama. Wild as well as cultivated trees 

 are attacked, though the disease, as a whole, is not 

 very destructive. Trees vary considerably as re- 

 gards powers of resistancy and on the lower slopes 

 of hills around the Kanaya Hotel at Nikko, trees 

 were found that were large and vigorous and ap- 

 parently immune, while on the higher mountains 

 and inore exposed parts trees were found that were 

 badly attacked. This Japanese chestnut, Castanea 

 japonica might be used as a factor in hybridiza- 

 tion experiments, together with American, Euro- 

 pean and Chinese species to create immune or 

 nearly immune strains of chestnuts. 



Meyer further states to the writers that the 

 Japanese chestnut, Castanea crenata Sieb. & 

 Zucc, is even more resistant to Endothia 

 parasitica than is the Chinese chestnut, Cas- 

 tanea mollissima. This further emphasizes 

 the difilculty of locating E. parasitica on chest- 

 nut in Japan where as already stated several 

 other fungi are common. 



On the arrival of Meyer in "Washington he 

 gave the writers specimens of diseased chest- 

 nut branches collected at Yokohama and at 

 Nikko. On the material from Yokohama no 

 Endothia was found. Specimens from Nikko 

 which were more abundant showed cankers 

 and mycelial fans typical of Endothia para- 

 sitica and niunerous stromata of the fungus. 

 Some of these stromata contained mature 

 ascospores and many of them viable pycno- 

 spores and ascospores. Cultures were at once 

 made on cornmeal in flasks and on cornmeal 

 and potato agar. These cultures proved iden- 

 tical with cultures made at the same time from 

 typical E. parasitica collected in this country 

 and also with the Chinese material which has 

 been kept in pure culture. While the season of 

 the year makes inoculations impossible the 

 mycelial and spore characters of this fungus 



