Went.— Notes on Sugar-cane Diseases . 593 
well, but no odour was detected, whereas this was very strong 
and pronounced in Nos. 4-7. Thus Thielaviopsis ethaceticus 
can invert dextrine and saccharose into glucose, can make 
ethylic alcohol out of glucose, and finally can oxidize this 
alcohol to acetic acid. In old cultures of the fungus, however, 
the odour disappears, so that it looks as if the ethyl-acetate 
might afterwards be used and assimilated by the fungus. 
A similar fungus has been described by Kayser 1 , and after- 
wards by Davalos and Acosta 2 . Kayser has found a yeast 
and a fungus, which both produce an ester, resembling in its 
odour the pineapple. The yeast is of no importance what- 
ever here, but the fungus possesses, according to the descrip- 
tion and the figure (though both are somewhat indistinct), the 
same kind of conidia as the microconidia of Thielaviopsis. 
Macroconidia are not described by Kayser, but the fungus 
produces ethyl-acetate and small quantities of ethylic alcohol. 
Other fungi producing conidia similar to the microconidia of 
Thielaviopsis are Endoconidium and Pyxidiophora. 
III. 
The paper by Massee on Trichosphaeria Sacchari gave me 
the impression that what he calls the macro- and microconidia 
of this fungus are similar to or very little different from the 
form which I had described as Thielaviopsis ethaceticus . 
This opinion was confirmed by the material I received from 
the West Indies containing so-called macro- and microconidia 
of Trichosphaeria , which could not be distinguished from my 
Thielaviopsis. This was an inducement for me to study 
Massee’s paper very closely ; for if his opinions were right, 
that these conidia are a form of Trichosphaeria Sacchari 
and that this fungus has a Melanconium - stage too, there 
would be an enormous probability that this would be the 
1 E. Kayser, Note sur les Ferments de 1 ’ Ananas. Ann. de l’lnstitut Pasteur, 
1891, tome v, p. 456. 
2 Davalos y Acosta, Nota sobra el fermento alcoholico de la pina. Cronica 
Medieoquirurgica de la Habana, 1892, No. 10, 
