Jan. 17, 1916 
Plenodomus fuscomaculans 
719 
The various nutrient media mentioned were made according to the 
ordinary formulae. Prune-juice agar was made by using 75 gm. of 
prunes with 20 gm. of agar per liter. Pea, corn, and oat broth were made 
by autoclaving two seeds or grains of each in 10 c. c. of distilled water. 
The tap water used in some experiments had a conductivity of approxi¬ 
mately 400 to 6ooXio“®, while the conductivity water averaged 2X 
io“ 6 at the time of preparation. This water was obtained either by 
distilling ordinary distilled water in a block-tin still or by double distil¬ 
ling such water in Jena glass. As is generally recognized, ordinary dis¬ 
tilled water varies greatly in quality, but the conductivity of the distilled 
water used was probably within 4 to 12X10“®. 
The filter paper used was Schleicher and SchulTs, and, unless otherwise 
given, was No. 595. All media were autoclaved at approximately 15 
pounds for 10 to 15 minutes, unless otherwise stated. 
Inoculations, unless specified otherwise, were made with one drop of a 
spore suspension obtained by crushing pycnidia in a water blank. This 
was then filtered through a filter paper into a sterile test tube. The 
filter paper was sterilized in a test tube drawn out to make a funnel. 
This gave a device by which large masses of mycelium and pycnidia 
walls could be strained from the suspension. The spore suspension was 
added to the various cultures by means of a sterile bulb pipette equipped 
with a long, small-bore outlet. 
EARLY EXPERIMENTS WITH ORDINARY LABORATORY METHODS 
The organism brought into pure culture was grown upon ordinary 
laboratory media. This work was done in the spring and fall of 1911 at 
the Michigan Agricultural College, at a table at the rear of a large labora¬ 
tory lighted from one side. Cultures were made in Petri dishes, flasks, 
and test tubes. Standard agar, prune-juice agar, apple stem and bark 
agar, apple twigs, parsnips, corn meal, potato, carrot, bean pods, beef 
broth, and filter paper, without other nutrients, as well as with various 
nutrient solutions, were the media employed. Cultures were grown 
under a variety of conditions, such as room conditions (test tubes in 
cans or in wire baskets), in the incubator at 25 0 C., and in the ice box at 
temperatures ranging from 7 0 to 13 0 . A few cultures were grown at 
37.5°. On all the media mentioned growth was obtained, with more or 
less difference in color or vigor, but in no case were fruiting bodies of 
any sort produced. In some cases the cultures were allowed to dry out 
gradually; in other cases sterile water was added from time to time. 
Flasks of corn meal, with an abundant water supply, were set away in a 
cupboard for three months in an attempt to secure fruiting bodies in 
the time-honored way. In spite of this variety of trials, the organism 
remained a typical “sterile fungus,” of which a number have been 
reported in literature. 
