260 EXPERIMENTAL FARMS 



2 GEOR3E V., A. 1912 



exposed to winter conditions, but germinate at once, and serve to propagate the disease 



throughout the season. While other parts of the plant may suffer, the effects are 

 usually most pronounced on the leaves. When infection has taken place, the leaf 

 tissue in the immediate neighbourhood becomes changed to a bright yellow colour, 

 which at first glance resembles the early fruiting stage of some rusts, e.g., Rose Rust. 

 Later, in these areas will be found little raised masses of a chocolate-brown colour, 

 which are pustules of spores. Often these are so numerous that the leaf tissue is 

 almost all destroyed with the result that the plant dies or produces a very poor show 

 p* flowers. 



Control. 

 One of the most essential steps in the control of this disease is the eradication of 

 all mallow plants in the vicinity of hollyhocks, otherwise the former will serve as a 

 continual source of new infections. The remains of attacked parts of the plants 

 should be burned, as the spores may live through the winter on such rubbish and ger- 

 minate the following spring. Where the plants are few in number and grown for 

 ornamental purposes, a careful watch should be kept as the young leaves come out. 

 i nd infected leaves picked off as the pustules appear. This will prevent much later 

 infection. Spraying with Bordeaux mixture, beginning as early as possible in the 

 season, and repeating often enough to keep the new leaves covered, is effective but 

 disfiguring where plants are grown for ornamental purposes. The fungus, as stated 

 in a recent publication on the subject, is also carried on the seeds or bracts and 

 develops when such seeds are being sown. The hollyhock is a much favoured old- 

 fashioned garden plant and as it is a remarkably free-blossomer, easily grown, care 

 phould be exercised to prevent this disfiguring rust from attacking the plants. 



PART II. 



AGR 1 CULT URAL BOTAX V. 



During the year, a considerable amount of the time of the Division has been 

 claimed by those branches of botany relating to the higher plants. The usual number 

 of weeds has been received for identification and advice upon means of eradication; 

 and each inquiry has been dealt with as fully as was possible with the often limited 

 information given us. In addition to these, and many other wild plants sent in small 

 numbers, about thirty collections, with an average of fifteen plants in each, have been 

 named for correspondents. Other inquiries have related to poisonous plants, and cases 

 of suspected plant poisoning; or to medicinal plants, and plants supposed by the 

 senders to be of medicinal value. A great many specimens, for instance, are sent with 

 the request to know if they are ginseng, though, curiously enough, only one received 

 during the year has proved to be that coveted species. Quite a number of correspond- 

 ents have asked for information about various special crops like broom-corn, hemp, 

 rape, ramie, mint, etc., and we have been frequently consulted about the values of 

 different grasses and clovers, the seeding down of wet meadows, sandy loam, lawns, 

 etc., and similar problems. 



The work on the Herbarium of the Division has also been continued, over five 

 hundred sheets being added this year, partly of material collected earlier by Dr. 

 Fletcher, and partly of collections made during the summer months, at Ottawa, and 

 during my trip through the Wesl in July and August. The collection has thus 

 been made considerably more complete as regards the Canadian flora, for among these 



