1 Maz., 1902.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 213 
symptoms of the disease it was observed that the main axis and branches con- 
stituting the bunch had already become brown or shrunken, or were in process 
of undergoing this change. As is shown in the plate illustrating this note, a 
primary branch on one side of the main axis might be affected in this way, 
whilst that occurring upon the opposite side was as yet still green and of the 
usual thickness, indicating in its case a low degree of progress in the develop- 
ment of the malady. 
On removing the fruit from a branch in which the disease exhibited this. 
early stage in its history, from an affected bunch, it was observed that there was. 
a brown discolouration with shrinkage of the basal portion of the pedicel of 
individual berries, or of the ultimate ramification of the branchlet whence this 
sprang. In this position indeed the disease appears to often originate, and so to 
readily determine changes in the fruit whose maintenance in a condition of health 
is dependent on the intactness of its support; these parts of the bunch containing 
the conduits through which transference of material is effected on which growth 
and ripening depend. 
This form of rot is brought about by the attacks of a definite fungus 
organism named Lwobasidium vitis, or Dematium pullulans, according to the 
point of view from which it is regarded; a parasite that is only to be detected 
externally upon the parts affected by the disease when conditions of humidity 
and warmth occur to favour its external development. 
On the entire dead wood forming the basis of the bunch of grapes it 
was to be met with in the form of minute white tuffs, densely sprinkled 
over the surface; also on some of the grapes to a lesser extent. In the 
case of the latter, however, it was usually restricted in occurrence to depressed 
areas, and especially to spots where skin injuries were met with. In the 
first instance described, in which the fruit was but two-thirds grown, the 
outward manifestation of the organism took the form of small pale-yellow 
pustules occupying the sites of the granule-like bodies (Jenticels) that occur 
upon the pedicels or stalks of the berries. When the disease attacks varieties. 
of Mnscat grapes, in which the fruit is light-coloured, there may be a deep. 
purplish-black discolouration of the surface, due to the presence of the parasite 
beneath the surface, in its Dematium stage. With these exceptions, the external 
occurrence of the fungus is revealed only as the outcome of microscopical 
investigation. 
The disease and its parasite were first described as occurring in Australia. 
in 1896 by the Government Vegetable Pathologist of Victoria, D. McAlpine 
(Additions to the Fungi on the Vine in Australia, Aureo Grape-Rot, pp. 16-20, 
Pl. I1.). In Queensland its occurrence was first noticed in December, 1900. 
The parasite itself McAlpine named Aureolasidium vitis, var. tuberculatum, 
and recently, as he has informed the writer, he regards the latter—that he now 
agrees with him in assigning it to the genus Ewohastdium—not as an auto- 
nomous organism, but as a stage in the development of Dematium pullulans. 
This conclusion is concurred in, with the suggestion that the so-called tubercular: 
base of the fungus that this authority both describes and figures [op. cif. p. 18, 
and Pl. 3, fig. 10] is assignable to the Dematium condition of the organism.™ 
In addition to the phases of existence mentioned, and that need not be 
described on this occasion, the parasite has doubtless a higher condition that still 
awaits discovery, and which will only be brought to light when the biological 
history of the organism has been made a subject of investigation. 
The inquiry is one, however, to which especial difficulty attaches, since, as 
has been indicated by the researches of A. N. Berlese, Dematium is anewrobic,t 
*In accepting this view it would seem, however, necessary to regard Dematium pullulans as a 
collective form representing a special state of a number of different fungi, belonging both to the 
Spheriacee and other groups, according to the view held by A. N. Berlese, and having a phase 
(saccharimycetifurm) corresponding to Aureobasidium (Exobasidum) in the course of its develop- 
ment. 
+ Anzrobic organisms ure such as not only develop without the presence of oxygen in the 
medium in which they occur, but also experience an obstacle to their vegetation or even death in 
consequence of its presence. 
