Sugar-Cane in the West Indies . 385 
The spores germinate in three hours after sowing by 
sending out a colourless hypha from one end, after which 
a second hypha is developed at the other end. These 
grow rapidly, become septate, branch, and fuse very readily 
(Fig. 3). When three days old, conidia were developed from 
the mycelium by a process of budding. These conidia are 
smaller (25x2-5 yu) than those formed at the stromata, and 
are identical with those produced in great numbers when 
a piece of fresh cane attacked by the ‘ rind ’ disease is split 
open and placed in a closed chamber. Stages in their forma- 
tion are shown in Fig. 4. They vary very much as regards 
shape and size. 
When five days old, dark-brown, irregularly- shaped chlamy- 
dospores were noted in the hyphae, especially at the ends. They 
measure 15 to 25 /x in diameter and are represented in Fig. 5. 
When six days old, stromata appeared in the drops, at 
which sickle-shaped conidia, measuring 30 to 45 x 5 were 
formed. Stages are shown in Fig. 6. Only very rarely were 
the dark-brown hairs, characteristic of the stromata of the 
fungus on the sugar-cane, noted in these hanging-drop 
cultures. When they occurred they measured 100 to 150 x 4 /x 
and were four to five septate. No further developments 
were observed in hanging drops. 
Next, cultivations of this fungus were made by infecting 
sterile pieces of sugar-cane with spores from a hanging-drop 
culture grown from one spore. In three days the slabs were 
covered with a beautiful white mycelium, and in fifteen days 
dark-coloured dots were noted, which were found to be 
stromata bearing dark-brown hairs and numerous conidia 
exactly like those on th*e cane. 
These cultures were repeated several times, when it was 
found that the time of appearance of the black stromata varied 
between five and eighteen days according to the size and 
character of the cane-slabs. 
A similar result was obtained in flask-cultures, using the 
cane-extract medium. Stromata appeared on the surface 
of the flasks in from fifteen to twenty days. 
