520 Massee . — On Trichosphaeria Sacchari, Mass.; 
colouring-matter is most abundant in the elements composing 
the bundles, which show up as bright red streaks when the 
parasite has but recently commenced its work ; at a later 
stage the fundamental tissue also becomes tinged. The 
colouring-matter appears under the form of patches of 
variable size attached to the inside of the cell-wall and is 
soluble in alcohol. 
As no indication of disease due to the Trichosphaeria had 
been observed on the sugar-cane cultivated at Kew, it is 
assumed that the results to be recorded were entirely due to 
inoculation from material obtained from the diseased canes 
received from Barbados. 
Expt. I.— A sugar-cane six feet high and one and a half 
nch diameter at the base was experimented upon. Melan- 
conium- conidia were placed upon the base of an old leaf- 
sheath, the leaf having fallen away : after twenty days the 
Melanconium-i ruit was fully developed, the long black fila- 
ments of conidia oozing out through minute cracks in the 
cuticle about half an inch above the node, and from the point 
of inoculation. At the same time as the above experiment 
was performed, a small portion of diseased cane containing 
hyphae of the Melanconium-stage was introduced into a slit 
made in a cane ; this experiment resulted in the appearance 
of mature fruit bursting out from the cane after twenty-two 
days. The cane was cut down ten days after the last- 
mentioned experiment, and on being split open it was found 
that at the point where inoculation was performed by wound- 
ing the cane, the mycelium had produced the large macro- 
conidia in the decaying tissue ; no macroconidia were present 
at the point where infection took place through a dead leaf- 
base. This agrees with what has been observed in canes 
from the West Indies, macroconidia being met with only in 
those cases where the tissue was decayed. 
Expt. II. — Melanconium- conidia were placed on moistened 
patches of young living leaves of sugar-cane, some of the 
patches being first carefully washed to remove the bloom on 
the surface of the leaf, others not being so treated. After 
