Rhizostilbclla rubra , a by- fruit form of Ascobolus parasiticus &c. 
239 
It is important to know that therefore in our Institute the cultivation 
of Voandzeia finally is stopped. In course of years the soil has been so 
enormous infected with this mould, that, gradually, it has been impossible 
to cultivate crops which are somewhat sensible to this disease. Yet for 
the rest of the vegetable world also it is a very v general malady, as all 
sorts of plants are liable to be more or less severely attacked by it in 
course of time. But with most of them the infection is not so dangerous 
from a practical agricultural point of view, although it may locally cause 
a great mortality among the growths. 
But, though this disease is in practical sense not harmful for every 
crop, it is therefore so dangerous while in general, cultivators are ex¬ 
tremely thoughtless, so that they do not pay attention in those cases in 
which a, a formerly harmful mould, suddenly becomes a dangerous enemy. 
This is, for instance, the case in our seedlings of rice, in which the 
mould is suddenly appeared in so a violent degree, that now, on the 
moment on with I write this, the seedling-beds are liable to a great 
mortality. In fig. 11 I give a representation of an attacked rice-seedling, 
on which the Sclerotia are very well to be seen. For further indication 
I name it here: “Sclerotium omnivorum”. The infection occurs at the 
neck of the roots, the sickness being ultimately recognizable by the pre¬ 
sence of a loose white covering of mycelium threads at the neck of the 
root, while gradually a great number of first white, later on light 
brown Sclerotia appear of the size of a pin’s head, round or somewhat 
oval shaped. If the plant dies of it then the sclerotium layer often 
spreads over the whole of it, as frequently occurs with Voandzeia which 
constantly suffers most from this mould. 
This sclerotium form has never been seen to fructify, 
v According to communications which have reached me there have 
already been many different generations of enquirers of the Agricultural 
Department at Buitenzorg who must have tried their hands on this 
mould with a view of acquiring a closer knowledge of its life, but always 
in vain; for the mould well know how to preserve with great stubborness 
the veil of mystery that lay spread over its identification. My first at¬ 
tempts at causing this mould to fructify also failed, I cultivated it in 
every possible variety of artificial pabulum: indeed I obtained splendid 
pure-cultivations but always resulting in a splendid mycelium development 
followed by sclerotium formation. Although the sclerotia in their natural 
state only attained the size of a pin’s head I got in my pure-cultures 
specimens of the size of a pea, brown with black spots; but no further 
results I attained. 
I shall indeed enter no further into these interventions, as they 
are of but minor importance in this treatise. Now I have also followed 
from the beginning the method of keeping the sick plant materials in 
several closed culture-pans. I kept exact notes of the moulds that suc¬ 
cessively fructified in each of the culture-pans. At the beginning of the 
first paragraph of this treatise I have given a representation of the 
mould vegetations which successively manifested themselves on the decaying 
parts of the plants. I treated in this manner the sick plant material's as 
well as sound ones. 
Now it occured to me, in working out my notes, that the Ascobolus 
described, occured only in the culture-pans in which were the plants 
