PARASITIO FUNGI AND MOULDS. 39 
The young stalks assume a sickly appearance, and 
often wither off, together with the leaves and fruit. 
When the fungus fastens on the fibro-vascular 
bundles of the leaves before their complete develop- 
ment, the leaves shrivel and curl up, and perform their 
functions imperfectly ; when it attacks the petiole or 
peduncle of the bunch of grapes, it dries up, and the 
destruction of all the parts in dependence on it soon 
follow. It is this fungus which, under the name of 
rot, now devastates the American vineyards. 
Sulphur is by no means so efficacious in this case 
as it is with oidium, but the following treatment is 
prescribed by Portes :— 
1. The prunings of the vine and other remains 
of the preceding years should be destroyed, 2. The 
suckers and young shoots should be dusted, in the 
second fortnight of April, with slaked lime which has 
been finely powdered, and this operation should be 
repeated once a fortnight up to the end of June. 
3. Sulphur should be applied at the usual times, 
especially if there is any oidium. 4 The vines 
should be drained and irrigated as often as possible. 
5. In all cases in which the fungus can be detected, 
powdered lime should be applied at the interval of 
some days, alternately with the same substance mixed 
with flowers of sulphur. 
Aubernage, called by the Italians the Black disease, 
must not be confounded with Anthracnosis. Accord- 
ing to recent researches, aubernage is not produced 
