250 MAINE AGRICUIvTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION, 1913. 



Fusarium and the other the fungus with both obovate and sep- 

 tate spores, or it may be possible, as Stewart beUeved, that 

 Heald's fungus showed at one time a predominance of septate 

 spores and at another time of obovate spores and in that way led 

 Heald to classify it at one time as Fusarium and later as a 

 Sporotrichum. 



The writer has found 3 types of fungi capable of causing the 

 rot : first those with a predominance of obovate spores, as in 

 the fungus from June grass, F XXIV ; second, those which 

 produce large numbers of both obovate and septate spores as in 

 F II from apple and the fungus from sunflower, F XIII; and^ 

 third, certain typical species of Fusarium which produce na 

 obovate spores as F I from apple and the fungus carried as 

 F. roseum, F XVIII, from wheat. From the results of his 

 inoculation experiments and culture studies Stewart concluded 

 that his carnation bud-rot fungus, the fungus from June grass, 

 and Heald's carnation fungus were identical. This conclusion 

 is probably correct, yet attention should be called to the fact 

 that emphasis should be placed on the cultural and morphological 

 characters as well as on the results of inoculations because it 

 has been shown that a number of species which are quite dis- 

 tinct in morphological characters may cause the rot of the buds. 



The fact that a number of species or strains from different 

 sources may cause the rot makes the question of control a more 

 difficult one than it would be if only one fungus were responsible 

 for the trouble. Heald regarded the bud rot as serious only in 

 neglected houses while Stewart reported cases in which con- 

 siderable loss occurred in houses which were well cared for. 

 The fact that the fungi which cause the rot attack no other part 

 of the plant than the interior of the bud would seem to indicate 

 that in order to reach this part the fungus would have to enter 

 through a wound in the calyx. In the greenhouse where the 

 inoculation experiments reported in this paper were carried on, 

 decay of buds which had not been inoculated was of very rare 

 occurrence. In a very few instances, check buds in which 

 punctures had been made were attacked by the fungi. The 

 writer helieves that as a rule in houses where every precaution 

 is taken to remove and destroy material which might carry 

 infection and where good conditions for growth are maintained 

 there will be little trouhle from the attacks of these fungi. 



