On Trichosphaeria Sacchari, Mass.; a Fun- 
gus causing a Disease of the Sugar-cane. 
BY 
G. MASSEE, 
Principal Assistant , Herbarium, Royal Gardens , Kew. 
With Plate XXVII. 
URING the past three years a considerable amount of 
' correspondence has been addressed to the Royal 
Gardens, Kew, relating to a sugar-cane disease in the West 
Indies. Mr. J. H. Hart, F.G.S., Superintendent of the Royal 
Botanic Gardens, Trinidad, was the first to call attention to 
the subject, and considered the disease to be caused by 
a fungus, but owing to the material sent being either dry or 
in alcohol, this supposition could not be corroborated by 
cultures ; and the question remained unsettled until the 
receipt of eighteen selected sugar-canes, illustrating every 
stage of the disease, from Mr. Bovell, Superintendent, Botani- 
cal Station, Dodd’s Reformatory, Barbados. Each cane was 
accompanied by a description of the supposed cause of disease, 
as, attacked by ‘ shot-borer ’ ( Xyleborus perforans , Wall.) ; 
‘ moth-borer’ ( Diatraea saccharalis , Fabr.) ; ‘fungus’; and in 
some instances two or all of these were described as being 
present on the same cane. I was requested by the Director 
of the Royal Gardens, to make a thorough examination of 
[Annals of Botany, Vol. VII. No. XXVIII. December, 1893.] 
M m 
