76 FUNGOID PESTS OF CULTIVATED PLANTS. 



Soaking the bulbs for two hours in a solution of one part formalin to 

 three hundred parts of water will destroy the fungus, so long as it is 

 external and has not penetrated deeply into the bulb. 



Mass. PL Dis. 325, 411. 



Leaf spots of six different kinds are recorded on Iris leaves in different 

 countries, but none of them have yet been reported as British. 



A Bacterial disease on Iris is noticed in Journ. B.H.S. xxviii. 1904, 

 p. 6G2. 



Gladiolus Smut. 

 Urocystis Gladioli (Smith), PI. V. fig. 94*. 



This smut, which in some respects resembles that of Colchioum, 

 attacks the corms of Gladiolus, forming the spore masses within the 

 corms. These are in rounded balls, or glomerules (40-50 /« diam.). 



The teleutospores, or central fertile spores, are rounded on the outer 

 side, but angular by compression elsewhere : they are dark brown (4-6 /*) 

 and smooth. Externally in the glomerules are a series of colourless 

 sterile spores or conidia, as in most other species of Urocystis, and in this 

 case they are very numerous and evenly distributed. 



The glomerules, or spore masses, have somewhat the appearance of 

 lar^e spores, divided in different directions, but in reality they consist of 

 an agglomeration of smaller spores, closely compressed together into a 

 ball, the inner ones being coloured and capable of germination, the outer 

 incoloured and sterile. When fully matured the component cells 

 3( parate under pressure, but the true function of the sterile cells has not 

 been determined. 



It might be advisable to immerse any suspected corms for a time 

 before planting in Condy's fluid ; but it is hopeless to expect any remedy 

 wIkd the corms are seriously attacked. 



Known also in France and Germany. 



Gard. CJvron. Sept. 30, 187G, p. 420, fig. ; Grevillea, v. 57 ; Sacc. 

 Syll. vii. 1900 ; Mass. B.F. 187 ; Ploicr.Br.' Urcd. 2H7 ; Cooke M.F. 232. 



Gladiolus leaf-spot (Se/itoria Gladioli) and Gladiolus rust (Puccinia 

 m in present unknown in Britain. ( 



Colchn i m Smut. 

 Urocystis Colchu i (Schl.), PI. V. fig. 91. 



This is a di i of Colchicum which lias long been known and too 

 prominent in it- manifestations to escape notice. The growing leaves are 

 the subject <>f attack, and these are distorted and disfigured by the long 

 and uglj pustules formed by tin pest. These are large, thick, swollen, or 

 bullate, at first covered by the epidermis, hut at lengtb ruptured and 

 fringed with the remains of the torn cuticle, exposing the black, sooty- 

 Looking mass of complex jpon . 



The "101111 rul< -. or clusters, are nearly globose (20-33 x 1G-20/i), with 



tie central poo- few and eliestmit-lirown, Compi '( -■ d at the points of 



