200 Report of the Botanist of thb 



Miscellaneous Diseases. — Scab {Fusicladium pirinum (Lib.) 

 Fckl.) was not troublesome. Leaf blight [Entamosporium 

 maculatum L6v.) and leaf spot (Septoria piricola Desm.) both oc- 

 curred sparingly throughout the entire district, but neither was 

 destructive. No specimen of genuine rust (Gymnosporangiuni) 

 was taken and russeting of the fruit was not common. Crown 

 gall occurs occasionally on pears in the nursery. Brown, corky 

 spots within the bark may be caused by hailstones as on other 

 fruit trees. The spots are not visible externally. 



PLUM DISEASES. 



Fruit Rot [Monilia fructiffcna P.). — Although considerably less 

 destructive than usual, fruit rot was quite proA^alent and in 

 some cases caused heavy losses. 



Many of the rotten plums remain on the trees over winter. 

 They are called mummy plums or mummies. It is important 

 that such plums be removed from the orchard, because they 

 harbor the rot fungus and in the spring become centers of in- 

 fection. 



We have observed that mummy plums, their pedicels and the 

 twigs bearing them are often covered with a black fungus. On 

 the twig the fungus extends its growth to a distance of two 

 to six inches below the mummy plum, but scarcely at all above 

 it. Evidently, the fungus lives on the juice which the rain 

 washes out of the mummies. Probably, it does the twig little or 

 no harm. It grows partly on the surface and partly beneath 

 the cuticle, causing an eruption which makes the affected twigs 

 quite rough to the touch. Prof. C. H. Peck, to whom the fungus 

 was referred for identification states that it is an undescribed 

 species for which he proposes the name Gonioihecium sociale. 



SuNSCALD. — Some varieties of plums, particularly Reine 

 Claude, are much injured by sunscald. On the southwest side of 

 the trunk a strip of dead bark extends from the ground to 

 the crotch, or even well up on the larger branches. In the ad- 

 vanced stage the dead bark falls away leaving, the wood bare. 

 With Reine Claude, sunscald is so common that this variety is 



