332 
Journal of Agricultural Research 
Vol. II, No. 5 
Wisconsin, who very kindly gave the writer a culture for comparative 
studies. The results of inoculation experiments showed that both 
Phoma solani and Phyllosticta hortorum are able to produce a fruit-rot 
and a stem-blight of eggplants. When this fact was determined, mor¬ 
phological studies were made of the two fungi. As a result of this study, 
the fungi were found identical, and, furthermore, it was concluded that 
the genus to which they belonged was neither Phoma, Phyllosticta, nor 
Ascochyta. 
DESCRIPTION OF THE DISEASE 
The fungus causing damping-off, or seedling stem-blight, of young 
eggplants and seedlings was attributed by Halsted (1892, p. 277) to the 
fungus Phoma solani. The stems of seedlings or very young plants 
attacked by the fungus are girdled for an inch or more above the soil 
line. The plants soon topple over and die (PI. XXVI). The part of the 
stem girdled by the fungus has a smaller diameter than the healthy 
portion above. This is due partly to the falling away or drying up of 
the diseased tissue and partly to the arrest in the growth of the stem 
where the fungus is present. Although pycnidia are usually formed 
abundantly on the diseased stems of young plants (PL XXVII), they 
develop sparingly or not at all on older ones. They may be developed, 
however, on old plants by placing the diseased stem for a few days in a 
moist chamber. 
On the leaves (PI. XXVIII) the fungus causes in the earlier stages 
brown, dead, round, oval, or oblong spots which become more irregular 
in shape and jagged in outline with age. The irregularly shaped spots, 
varying from 2 mm. to 2 or 3 cm. in diameter, are more prevalent on or 
near the margin of the leaf, or along the midrib or larger veins. These 
spots consist of a light or grayish inner zone surrounded by a darker, 
almost black, margin of perhaps mm. in width. They are usually 
not concentrically enlarged, although their appearance sometimes is such. 
Two or more spots may unite, forming large blotches, and upon the 
midrib, the petiole, or upon the large veins of the leaf the fungus may 
produce lesions or abrasions in which pycnidia are formed. 
When the fruit is attacked by this organism, it becomes at first soft 
and mushy, but later mummified and black (PL XXIX, fig. 1). A 
pure culture can usually be secured by planting bits of the inner tissue 
(PL XXX) in plates of agar. Pycnidia may form at first in rather 
definite spots, but in most cases they will finally cover the whole surface 
of the fruit. It is believed that young fruit is most subject to attack, 
although fruit in all stages of growth has been found to be diseased. 
The pycnidia, often with a well-defined beak, are at first buried, but 
later break through the epidermis and appear as brown or black specks 
extending a little above the surface. On the fruit the pycnidia become 
visible to the naked eye and are considerably larger than those on the 
leaves. They stand close together on both the fruit and leaves, separate 
