Disease of the West Indies. 613 
It may be remarked that Went has ignored the striking 
resemblance indicated by Massee ( 1 . c., 524) between the 
macro- and microconidia and their mode of production in 
Thielaviopsis and in Ceratocystis fimbriata , Ellis and Halsted 
(Journ. of Myc., vol. VII, pp. 1-11), which produces the 
‘ Sweet Potato Black Rot.’ It is interesting to observe that 
this has also a pycnidial form, and that as in Trichosphaeria 
the stylospores are extruded in an "agglutinated mass. 
Ellis and Everhart have briefly described (Journ. Inst. 
Jam., vol. I, 3892, p. 159) a sugar-cane Fungus under the 
name of Trullula Sacchari. This has been definitely ascer¬ 
tained at Kew to be identical with Trichosphaeria. As the 
diagnosis mentions the 4 erumpent ’ stylospores and the 
4 catenulate ’ conidia, it is evident that these authors observed 
the macroconidia. 
According to Went ( 1 . c., p. 595 ), the Melanconium in Java 
‘ is only a saprophyte, and not a wound-parasite, as the form 
in the West Indies seems to be.’ The latter conclusion is, 
however, abundantly established not merely by the Kew 
experiments but by Prillieux and Delacroix in Paris ( 1 . c., p. 81) 
and Howard in Barbados. 
It is to be observed that the Melanconium- stage of Tricho¬ 
sphaeria seems altogether unknown in Java. Its sugar- 
planters are much to be congratulated. Kruger, who gives 
(op. cit.) a very full account of all the diseases of the sugar¬ 
cane known in Java, indicates nothing in the least resembling 
the 4 Rind Fungus ’ of the West Indies. What is quite certain 
is that Went’s ‘ Melanconium (Sacchari ?)’ has nothing to do 
with it. Fig. 31 in the Annals ( 1 . c.) would rather suggest that 
it may be a stage of some Basidiomycetous Fungus. The 
fourth section of Went’s paper ( 1 . c., pp. 595-598) is wholly 
irrelevant, because it is clear that he has identified under the 
name of Melanconium Sacchari two perfectly distinct things. 
His experimental results were made with a Javanese Fungus 
which has nothing to do with Trichosphaeria. His results 
have therefore no bearing on its life-history. He concludes by 
observing: 4 I regret that I am not able to experiment with 
