On Trichosphaeria Sacchari, Massee; a 
Fungus causing a Disease of the Sugar¬ 
cane known as ‘Rind Fungus.’ 
BY 
ALBERT HOWARD, B.A., A.R.C.S. 
Foundation Scholar of St. John's College , Cambridge ; Mycologist to the 
Imperial Department of Agriculture for the West Indies. 
T HE life-history of Trichosphaeria Sacchari was first in- 
vestigated by Mr. George Massee at the Royal Gardens, 
Kew, and his results are summed up in a paper contributed to 
the ‘ Annals of Botany’ for December, 1893 (vol. vii, p. 515). 
I was requested by the Imperial Commissioner of Agriculture 
for the West Indies to repeat Mr. Massee’s work under 
tropical conditions with a view of ascertaining how far local 
conditions affect the life-history of the Fungus. The present 
paper gives an account of the first portion of the work and 
deals with the Melanconium , micro - and macroconidial stages 
of the Fungus in so far as the present investigation sup- 
plements Mr. Massee’s work. 
Melanconium stage. ' 
A casual visitor to any cane-field or estate-yard in Barbados 
during crop time (March to June) is bound to be struck by 
the large number of diseased canes, locally known as 4 rotten- 
canes,’ to be met with. These diseased canes are brown 
in colour, more or less shrivelled, and in nearly all cases are 
[Annals of Botany, Vol. XIV. No. LVI. December, 1900.J 
