FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
43 
pass through the stages of decay, from 
slight softening at the stem end, to brown 
mushiness and finally to a hard, dark- 
brown or black mummy. The spurs from 
which the fruit has dropped, die back 
from 3 to 12 inches or more and often 
show drops of gum near the border be¬ 
tween the dead and live wood of these 
twigs. Spores of the fungus have been 
found in great numbers on these dead 
branches and on the mummified fruits, 
and pure cultures have been obtained 
from the interior of these twigs as well 
as from the interior of softened fruit. 
A year ago I gave you my first report 
on this disease and gave out the informa¬ 
tion that had been obtained up to that 
time. The information then at hand was 
that stem-end rot was a serious decay of 
sound fruit as well as injured fruit; that 
this decay developed often on sound or¬ 
anges in transit; that it was caused by a 
fungus growth which usually entered at 
the stem end; that it might be transmitt¬ 
ed from diseased oranges to healthy ones 
by contact or by soaking them in water; 
that it might be transmitted also by means 
of pure cultures of the fungus placed 
on the fruit, or placed in water in which 
the fruit was soaked; that the fungus 
could infect the fruit through a stem left 
on an orange at least 3 inches long; that 
fruits could be infected by placing them 
in water with soil from under infected 
trees; that it took from one to three 
weeks after infection, for symptoms of 
the decay to appear. 
During the past year additional infor¬ 
mation and facts in regard to the disease 
have been obtained by observation and 
spraying experiments in various orange 
groves in the state, and by experiment 
and study in the laboratory. I will noF 
give you the tiresome details of these, but 
speak of the facts brought out. 
First of all there is one correction to 
make. 1 said last year that the fungus 
was a species of Achlya belonging to the 
water moulds. Further study has shown 
that it is not a water mould, but probably 
some higher form. 
INOCULATION EXPERIMENTS. 
In my paper last year I showed some 
charts containing the tabulated results of 
the work to that time. In order to def¬ 
initely establish these results and find out 
further in regard to the fungus, some ad¬ 
ditional experiments were carried out last 
November and December. We wished 
to find out (1) the influence that injury 
to the rind would have on making the 
fruit subject to stem-end rot decay. For 
this purpose the rinds of some oranges 
were slightly cut near the stem end like 
a bad clipper cut, while others were left 
uninjured and comparison sets were 
made, placing on these both fungus fila¬ 
ments and the fungus spores. A com¬ 
parison was also made as between the 
effect of stem end rot fungus, and the 
known citrus disease fungi, when placed 
on the surface of the fruit. Both sound 
and clipper-cut fruit were used as before. 
The results are shown in Table I. 
