196 Report of the Botanist of the 



CYTosroRA. — Dead peach branches are commouly infested by 

 a species of Gytospora which is generally believed to be a sapro- 

 phyte and considered of little importance; but we have so often 

 seen this fungus intimately associated with dead and dying peach 

 trees when no other sufficient cause for disease was evident, that 

 we are becoming suspicious that it is, at least, a semiparasite. 

 Young peach trees found dead in the spring and supposed to 

 have been winter killed, often have the lower part of their 

 trunks thickly covered with pimples. When the outer bark is 

 removed it is seen that the pimples are caused by the presence 

 of flattened, roundish bodies, which in color, size, and shape, 

 resemble flattened shot. The interior of these bodies is white. 

 They are very suggestive of sclerotia. In reality, they are the 

 stromata of Gytospora. Eventually, they may become divided 

 into several ehambers each containing multitudes of small, 

 curved, hyaline spores. However, under some conditions they 

 may remain indefinitely in the sclerotium-like stage and are then 

 very puzzling to the uninitiated. What appears to be the same 

 fungus occurs on the trunks and branches of apricots and plums. 

 (See pages 181, 201.) 



Splitting op the Trunk. — In a peach orchard at Trumans- 

 burg, 20^25 per ct. of the trees show conspicuous scars on the 

 trunks, chiefly on the southwest side. The owner states that four 

 or five years ago the trunks split from the ground to the crotch 

 as a result of severe freezing. In the spring following the win- 

 ter in which the injury occurred, the edges of the wounds were 

 trimmed back to the living tissue and painted with Bordeaux 

 mixture. The majority of the trunks have healed over nicely 

 without any injury from rot. One fresh crack was observed 

 which was evidently due to the winter of 1899^1900. The trees 

 are of the variety Elberta and were very vigorous previous to 

 the occurrence of the injury-^** 



Other Diseases. — Black spot or scab, Cladosporium carpopMr 

 lum Thiim, occurred sparingly. 



'Tor an Illustration of a split peach trunk and a discussion of the treat- 

 ment of such Injury, see Bailey, L. H. The Pruning Book, pp. 122-123. 

 The MacMillan Go., New York, 1898. 



