100 
it as very troublesome in that year and the year before. Recently Prof 
Arthur * has recorded it as very widespread in Indiana, and Dr. Erwin 
F. Smith t as quite destructive in Delaware, Michigan, etc. Professor 
Galloway, who has kindly allowed me the use of his unpublished notes, 
records it as very destructive in many parts of the United States. The 
principal loss results from unattractive peaches and premature decay, 
due to Monilia fructigena and other saprophytic fungi. In Texas I 
have seen many peaches affected by it, especially the late varieties. 
The plum fungus differs in some respect from the peach, but this may 
not be sufficient to make a new species. 
So far I have only found the fungus on the fruit, but the peach fungus 
is recorded by Prof. Galloway on the leaves as well. When plums 
begin to ripen, or are just turning in color, small round patches not 
larger than a pin head make their appearance. They are pale greenish 
or grayish in color. These spots increase in size till in some cases they 
are half an inch across. They are usually round, with a somewhat paler 
border. In older specimens the patches are frequently confluent and 
of darker brown color. In very old specimens, especially in those, 
where the fruit lias undergone decomposition, the patches become black 
and uneven. 
An examination of the small grayish spots shows a nearly colorless 
mycelium creeping over the surface. In the darker portions of the 
large patches are septate hyplne. In some cases these can be seen to 
come through cracks in the cuticle. They are irregular in outline and 
frequently bent. As the material becomes older a dense stroma of 
short brownish hyplne appears. It lies between the cuticle and the 
cellulose layers of the cell wall. In cross section the hyplne are more 
or less angular in appearance, but when free they are rounded. This 
stroma, especially under favorable conditions, keeps on producing the 
erect septate hyphse, which bear the slightly colored spores at the end. 
They are oval in form, pointed at the end, and usually two celled. The 
spores germinate readily when kept in a moist chamber, producing a 
colorless tube. 
The fungus itself does not impair the qualities of the fruit, as the in¬ 
jury is little beyond where the spot appears, affecting only three or four 
layers of cells underlying the spot. Outside of the spot the tissues 
have their normal appearance. The cell contents of the affected parts 
are brown and dead. This death of cells causes a loss of water, and, 
as a result, small cracks appear in the cuticle through which the hyplise 
can readily enter the plant. But this entrance, so far as I have ob¬ 
served, is only superficial, never in the epidermal layer, nor even beyond 
the cellulose layer of the cell wall of the epidermal cell. It is not un¬ 
common to find large cracks or rifts through the outer patches. Plums 
affected by this fungus invariably show Monilia fructigena, putrefactive 
* Bull. Agrl. Experiment Station, Indiana, No. 9, 1889. 
t Jour. Mycology, Vol. v. p. 32. 
