594 Went . — Notes on Sugar-cane Diseases. 
case also with the Java fungus. The measures to prevent 
the pineapple-disease ought to be altered in that case. 
Now it seems to me that Massee has not proved that these 
two forms of conidia belong to the same fungus as the Melon - 
conium of the cane, nor that these three have an ascigerous 
stage in Trichosphaeria Sacchari. The reason why the 
experiments of Massee do not seem conclusive to me is, 
that he has neglected the first condition of any research 
into the development of fungi, which condition is, quoting 
the words of De Bary l , ‘ Das erste Postulat einer morpho- 
logisch-entwickelungsgeschichtlichen Untersuchung (ist) der 
Nachweis der zu irgend einer Zeit nothwendig vorhandenen 
organischen Continuitat successiver Entwickelungszustande, 
bei welcher also das spater auftretende Glied als ein Theil des 
nachstfrtiheren beginnt.’ 
Massee found two perithecia of Trichosphaeria Sacchari on 
much decayed canes received from Barbados, which sprung 
from a point that had previously borne a crop of microconidia. 
Massee calls the evidence in favour of a genetic connexion 
between the perithecia and the microconidia strong, where 
I might be inclined to speak of it as a very slight indication 
of the possibility of any such connexion. This supposition 
according to Massee was proved to be correct when young 
perithecia were found in a flask containing an old culture 
produced from a macroconidium. No other evidence what- 
ever is given. Whilst I do not assert that these perithecia 
and the macroconidia do not belong together, I urge that 
there is no sufficient evidence to prove this. 
Almost the same is the case with regard to the connexion 
between Mclanconium and the macro- and microconidia. In 
one of three flasks containing cultures of Melanconium - 
conidia there developed the micro- and macroconidia resem- 
bling Thielaviopsis. The most probable explanation of this 
would have been that these macro- and microconidia were 
an impurity having by chance entered into the flask ; and 
1 De Bary, Vergl. Morphologie u. Biologie der Pilze, Mycetozoen und 
Bacterien, 1884, p. 137. 
