48 MAINE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 



carnation buds. As a result of this work it has been found that 

 the same fungus may cause disease in a number of plants which 

 are not closely related. The practical bearing of such work is 

 seen when the chance of infection of one host by the spores 

 produced on another is considered. For example the effect of 

 the growth of this fungus on the grasses is probably not of 

 much importance because the primary injury is caused by the 

 grass thrips but the presence of the fungus on the grass may 

 become of importance if the sod is used for potting soil in a 

 greenhouse where carnations are being grown. If grass in an 

 orchard is affected by this fungus, the spores may be carried to 

 apples and thus bring about their decay. 



One of the other species from apple has also been isolated 

 from diseased wheat and from potatoes. The fungus from 

 wheat was tested on apple fruit and found to cause as much 

 decay as the fungus isolated from apple. This species also 

 caused the rot of carnation buds when it was used in making 

 inoculations which shows that this fungus also may cause dis- 

 ease in more than one host. 



On account of the difficulty in distinguishing one species of 

 Fusarium from others which closely resemble it, it is necessary 

 to grow the forms from different sources under the same con- 

 ditions for comparison. In order to determine the extent to 

 which each may cause disease it is necessary to carry on inocu- 

 lations. In this work species of Fusarium have been isolated 

 from the following hosts in addition to those already mentioned : 

 potato, 3 species ; corn, 2 species ; cucumber, 3 species ; squash, 

 3 species ; garden pea, one species ; China Aster, one species ; 

 tomato, one species. It has been found that two of the species 

 from potato are very similar to two of those from cucumber 

 and that one species from corn agrees quite closely with one 

 from squash. Inoculations have been made in potato, cucumber, 

 tomato and pea. 



When the great number of species of Fusarium is considered 

 in connection with the fact that a 'given species may cause dis- 

 ease in more than one host plant, it becomes apparent that 

 studies in which inoculations and cross inoculations are made, 

 using material from pure cultures of the fungi, not only have 

 value from the scientific standpoint but are also of great practi- 

 cal importance. 



