380 General Notes. [April 
of the genus Cercospora there are specimens of thirty-four 
of 
mens of half a dozen Polypori. Trametes, Hydnum, Radulum, 
Grandinia, Merulius, Hymenochete, Stereum, Corticium, Næ- 
malelia, and Exobasidium are represented by one or more species 
each,—that of the genus last named being the striking Æ. dis- 
coideum of Ellis, found on “the under-side of living leaves of 
Azalea viscosa.” 
Century XIX. is mainly devoted to the Uredinez, there being 
no less than twenty-three species of Æcidium, twenty-eight of 
Puccinia, and sixteen of Uromyces, besides eight more of various 
genera, making a sae of seventy-five. The remaining species 
are divided amon t or nine genera, of which Ustilago 
includes six, Peronospora three, Cystopus two, and Entomoph- 
thora two. It is scarcely necessary to ae that the specimens 
are highly acest, — Charles E. Bessey 
Tomato-Rot.—Dr. J. C. Arthur has ye studying eran 
and ascribes that observed in I o fermentation. 
“Fifth Annual Report of the New York Agricultural E ae 
ment Station,” he says, “ The fermentive action is evidently not 
begun until the resistance of the living tissues is greatly reduced 
or entirely lost. This may be brought about in several ways. 
ll fruit reaches this condition of inability to resist the inroads 
of disease-germs, or of germs of disintegration, when it becomes 
fully ripe,—literally dead-ripe. The condition may be prema- 
turely brought on by anything which decreases the vigor of the- 
plant, and thus enfeebles and shortens the life of its ripening 
tissues. A marked, p from several points of view an interest- 
ing, example of the early and extensive rotting of ripe fruit in 
plants Ep a debilitated by propagation for three sea- 
sons from seed successively selected from the feeblest plants of 
the preceding year is recorded by Mr. Goff, in which finally half 
the ripe fruit prematurely rotted. This kind of decay is very 
Eey sa ‘soft rot,’ and is well described by Mr. 
Goff : ‘The fruit becomes soft, and collapses without 
changing eN the skin finally bursts, permitting the contents 
to flow out, when it dries without detaching itself from the stem.’ 
f the fruit rests upon the ground it often cracks open, and the 
exposed surface becomes speedily covered with a white, velvety 
growth, composed of yeast and Oidium lactis, which for a con- 
siderable time prevents the contents from escaping. This white 
growth, with the associated bacteria, is only a more obvious de- 
the it of the active agents of fermentation which noros 
__ Dr. Arthur insists upon the necessity of diverimiaatiag betw 
the “ “soft rot” of ripe fruit and the other kinds which se 
a 
