THE BROWX ROT 



57 



soon becomes covered with a brownish^ or asb-colored 

 yelyety coatings which consists of vast numbers of mi- 

 nute spores produced by the mycelium of the fungus. 

 If one of these yelyety masses be shaken oyer a glass 

 ^^slide/^ and the slide be put under the microscope, it 

 will be seen that a great many of the spores have sej^a-^ 

 rated and fallen off, as shown in Fig. 26. The spores 

 are blown about by the wind, and when one of them 

 lodges on an unaffected plum where sufficient moisture is 



FIG. 30. 3IUM3IIED PLU3IS. 



present it starts the disease again. The rotten plums 

 continue hanging upon the tree, gradually shriyeling uj^ 

 (Fig. 28), until finally they become dry and mummied 

 husks, roughened by ridges of the skin, and in this state 

 they remain on the trees through the winter (Fig. 30). 

 On many of these mummied plums some spores will 

 adhere, eyen until the following spring, when they ap^ 

 parently haye the power of germinating ; and in all, or 

 nearly all, of them the mycelium remains in a dormant 



