382 Halsted: Influence of wet Weather 



flower stalks had all the inner leaves of the buslies o\'crrun and 

 bliglited by a dense growth of Botrytis vulgaris Fr. It was a 

 clear case of the fungus flourishing as a parasite upon the spring 

 herbage. 



F 



Among wild plants the large succulent foliage of the man- 

 drake proved especially susceptible. As early as May I5tli a 

 RaDiuIaria was found producing large brown patches^ and soon 

 after the rust {Puccuiia podophyUii Schr.) appeared in great abun- 

 dance, and within two weeks scarcely a plant could be found with 

 the leaves not covered with the telentospore form of the rust. 



. A very large per cent, of the plants of Claytoiia Virgbiica 

 L. were ruined hy Accidinin Mariae-Wilsoni Clint,, and the smut 

 {^Usti/ago ornithogali Schm.) ravaged Erythroniuni ]lrghuan?i 

 Sm, 



Some plants of Onagra bioinis (L.) were affected with Syuchy- 

 triiiui fnlgcns Schr., covering leaves and stem alike completely. 

 The same was true of Accidium cpilobii DC, The rust ruccinia 

 citrtipcs Howe on Sax if raga Virgiuiana Michx. was ver)^ abundant 

 and PlasDiopara gcranii (Pk.), and Pcronospora parasitica (Pers.) 

 were largely in evidence upon their respective hosts. Cystopus 

 Candidas was very common on shepherds' purse, while Ccrastium 

 vidgatuni was literally o\'errun by Isariopsis pusilla Fr. 



In the fruit garden the blackberries suffered unusually from the 

 rust, Caconia ?i if ens Schw,, in ]\Iay and June; Monilia fructigcna 

 secured the cherry crop, and in the grain fields the r}-e showed 

 much Urocystis occulta Wallr., and a still larger percentage of 

 wheat was destroyed by Ustilago tritici P., while some fields of 

 oats were ruined by Ustilago avcnac (Pers.). 



In the orchards the members of the genus Exoascjis have been 

 remarkably abundant, upon the chcrr}' trees ; and never before, to 

 my knowledge, has there been any such wide-spread outbreak of 

 peach curl {Exoascus deformans (Berk.)) in this country as during 



the spring of 1898. In some orchards every leaf was more or 

 less affected, and young trees recently set were similarly diseased. 

 In the ** Rural New Yorker/* under date of June 1 8th, there is an 

 editorial upon the subject in which it is stated that *'The peach 

 orchards have never before received such a visitation of curl as 



■ I 



this year." 



t. 



