is>l4] The Ottawa Naturalist. 159 



loam.. These old plums had evidently been buried for some 

 time in the soil, as last year's plums were still on the surface of 

 the ground. When the apothecia were gathered it was observed 

 that the asei in the more mature ones were discharging their 

 spores. The blossoms at this time had nearly all fallen. 



On May 29th, the writer paid a visit to Fruitland, in the 

 Niagara district, Ontario, in search of the apothecial stage. A 

 well cultivated plum orchard (chiefly Lombards) was visited. 

 The soil was a fairly heavy clay loam. Numbers of apothecia 

 were found growing from sclerotia in old dried mummied plums 

 covered bv moist earth or lying on the surface of the ground in 

 low spots where water had lain for some time. A closer examina- 

 tion revealed the stipes of numerous apothecia that had evidently 

 withered up as soon as the mummied fruit from which they were 

 growing had been dried by the sun. In another plum orchard, 

 the soil of which varied from clay loam to light sandy loam, 

 many more apothecia were observed, and countless withered 

 stipes indicated how prevalent the apothecial stage had been. 

 When the apothecia were disturbed, the spores were discharged 

 in fine brown dust-like clouds. The petals by this time had 

 nearly all fallen but most of the calices were still intact. 



A peach orchard on light, sandy loam was next inspected. 

 In this orchard a heavy cover crop of winter rye was growing. 

 Very few mummied fruits were found on the serf ace of the soil 

 A number of apothecia were found, however, growing from the 

 mummies buried in the sand. These were most abundant where 

 the cover crop was heaviest and the soil dampest. 



This was the first year that the apothecial stage was ob- 

 served in Ontario. The continual wet weather during May 

 without doubt accounted for the abundance of this stage of the 

 fungus. It was observed that the apothecia were not produced 

 except after heavy rains, and that they dried up and disappeared 

 within a few hours after the weather became dry and warm. 

 The very brief duration of the apothecia probably accounts for 

 the fact that this stage has not been more generally observed by 

 pathologists. 



On the same dates that the apothecia were found in such 

 abundance, mummied fruits and blighted twigs were examined 

 to see if the mvcelium was producing spore pustules. Though 

 large numbers of mummies and twigs were examined none showed 

 signs of spore pustules. These were not observed until a much 

 later date. As the blossoms had nearly all fallen at this time, 

 it would appear that the source of. blossom infection is either 

 conidia adherent to the bud scales or the apothecial stage pro- 

 duced from mummied fruits beneath the trees. It would seem 



