46 MAINE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. I9IO. 



measure ii microns in diameter the spores are about 4 x 5.5 

 microns. The ascospore has a thick wall with usually a num- 

 ber of thickened places on the wall. The asci or sacs which do 

 not produce spores vary in size and appearance. In some cases 

 they are of normal size and appear hyaline and seem to be lack- 

 ing in contents. In other cases they are smaller, being 7-8 

 microns in diameter' and contain a number of refractive bodies 

 which are probably food material. Some of the smaller sacs 

 in v\fhich no spores develop bear some resemblance to chlamydo- 

 spores but they do not germinate when sown in hanging drop 

 cultures. 



The fact that the conidia and the spore sacs belong to the 

 same fungus was determined by finding cases in which the 

 branch bearing conidia was attached to the same hypha which 

 was producing spore sacs. It was also determined by the fact 

 that colonies which developed from a single spore began to pro- 

 duce conidia in i to 3 days and later the spore sacs began to 

 develop so that in 6 to 10 days large numbers were found. 



Since this fungus was isolated from a decaying apple, it 

 seemed desirable to determine whether it could cause decay of 

 apples upon inoculation. A number of apples were inoculated 

 November 4, 1908, from pure cultures. A slow decay took 

 place and after 10 days the decayed regions at the points of 

 inoculation were each about 1.5 cm. in diameter. Some of the 

 decayed tissue was removed from one of the apples and was 

 teased out and examined. Large numbers of the spore sacs, 

 were found occupying the spaces between the cells. Plate cul- 

 tures were made by taking out some of the decaying tissue from 

 points inside one of the decaying apples with a steriHzed scalpel 

 and transferring to petri dishes containing prune agar. Pure 

 cultures of the fungus with which the apple was inoculated were 

 secured in each case showing that this fungus was responsible 

 for the decay. One month after the time of inoculation, the 

 fungus was reisolated in pure culture from an apple which was 

 about one-half decayed. In the summer and fall of 1909, inocu- 

 lations were made to determine whether this fungus could at- 

 tack green apples and it was found that while in some cases it 

 grew to a slight extent in the injured tissue at the point of in- 

 oculation in no case did it cause decay of unripe apples. It does 

 not seem probable that this fungus will become of much im- 

 portance as a cause of apple decay since it causes only a slow 

 •decay of ripe fruit. 



