74 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
conditions generally existing during a 
good part of the year in Florida is not 
the least of these. 
In the majority of instances where nat¬ 
ural enemies of an insect pest were em¬ 
ployed for its control the material either 
had to be imported or cultivated at some 
laboraitory and distributed fromi there. 
Again, since it could not well be foretold 
when an outbreak of the pest would occur, 
it became necessary to keep a supply con¬ 
tinually under cultivation. In the in¬ 
stance of the whitefly the grower need not 
fear any sudden outbreak of the pest. He 
knows, belorehand just about what he may 
expect and what the situation is. Nei¬ 
ther does he have to depend upon the 
Station for a supply of fungus. I shall 
add, however, that we do expect to culti¬ 
vate these fungi at the Experiment Sta¬ 
tion, and we expect to leave no stone un¬ 
turned until we are able to do so. That our 
Professor H. S. Fawcett has made some 
progress along' this, line will be evident 
from some of the lantern slides which I 
will show later in the evening. I must 
frankly add, however, that our first effort 
along this line on a large scale was not a 
success. But, unless some unforeseen and; 
unisurmountable difficulties are encoun¬ 
tered we hope to succeed. 
DIFFICULTIES. 
I have one regret, namely, that the freeze 
of last December, together with the pro¬ 
longed drought of the past six or seven 
months, has so reduced the amount of 
the fungi that it will be difficult tO' obtain 
any large quantities for some time this 
season. I hope, however, that by the 
middle of this summer a new crop will 
have started. The frost reduced the 
amount of the fungi by causing the leaves 
to drop from the trees, while the drought 
has caused it, as well as the leaves, to curl 
and large quantities have been loosened 
fromi the leaves and dropped to the 
ground. 
Another factor which may possiibly in¬ 
terfere somewhat with the efficiency of the 
Yellow Fungus is the discovery of a fun¬ 
gus (a species of Cladosporium) that lives 
upon the yellow. This has been observed 
by Dr. A. W. Morrill at Orlando and by 
myself at Mims (near Titusville) and 
Winter Park. When I first observed it 
at Mims last December it was on some 
trees that had been sprayed and I then 
lightly passed it over, thinking that the 
yellow fungus having been injured or 
killed by the spray this other fungus came 
on as. a saprophyte. Dr. Morrill observed 
it more carefully at Orlando and consid¬ 
ers it a parasite of the yellow fungus. My 
observations lead me to believe that this 
second fungus comes onto the pustules of 
the yellow fungus later in the season after 
the pustules of the latter have matured 
and have perhaps undergone some degen¬ 
erative changes. Again, from, the fact 
that this second fungus occurs in three of 
the strongholds of the yellow fungus, al¬ 
ready mentioned, I cannot help but feel 
that its presence is of no great significance 
so far as the efficiencv of the Yeffiow 
Aschersonia is concerned. If it were a se¬ 
rious pest of the yellow fungus I believe 
that the latter would have been seriously 
retarded in one or the other of the four 
places mentioned where the yellow fun¬ 
gus has been very effective. Besides, I 
do not believe it probable that this second 
fungus could have infested the yellow 
fungus in all four of the localities men¬ 
tioned at one time and I therefore infer 
that the same has been present for per¬ 
haps several years without seriously re^ 
