380 | [ ASSEMBLY 
As already stated, the identity of the mycelium could not be de- 
termined. Ina paper presented to the Society for the promotion 
of Agricultural Science at its late meeting in Philadelphia, Dr. 
Halsted stated that he had traced the rotting of green tomatoes to a 
fungus inhabiting the leaves of the plant, usually called Cladospo- 
rium fulvum. This fungus did not occur upon the leaves of toma- 
toes at the Station, and whether the mycelium of the rot was inden- 
tical with it could not be ascertained in the absence of spores. The 
very similar Cladosporium herbarum was, however, common upon 
ripe tomatoes, and also wherever cracks occurred upon partially-ripe 
fruit. This is an exceedingly common fungus on all dying or dead 
vegetation, but is not known to cause rots of the nature of the one 
under discussion. | 
Our season’s work, therefore, decides nothing as to what fungus 
causes the rot in green tomatoes, except that it is not due to bac- 
teria, or of its mode of attack or the means for controlling it. 
Ror wn Rrezt Tomatozs. 
The work on the premature decay of ripe tomatoes was rather 
more successful than that of green fruit. The softening and final 
- breaking down of the tissues of ripe toma- 
toes, accompanied by a strong vinegar odor, 
was found to be associated with the presence 
, of common yeast (fig. 2), and another yeast- 
“J like plant (fig. 3), known as Oidium lactis, 
J so named by Fresenius,* who found it upon 
sour milk. The latter kind formed a snow- 
white mass wherever the skin of the tomato 
was broken. It was also found upon the ex- 
Fig. 2.— Yeast plants posed inner surfaces of ripe watermelons and 
from an over-ripe tomato. muskmelons that had been cut open and left 
aN Rts 200 times.—Ori- on the ground to decay. Bacteria were pres- 
ent in all cases. There was no difficulty in 
producing the same phenomenon of fermentation and disintegration 
of the tissues in an unaffected, ripe tomato by introducing a drop 
of the juice from one containing the fungi. 
* Beitrage zur Mykologie, 1850-63, p. 23, 

