— 197 — 



Dutch were free. Mr. C. M. Booth of Rochester reported it as 

 severely attacking the Red Dutch Currant. Dr. C. H. Peck the 

 State Botanist, reports it as alnmdant on and injurious to cultivated 

 currants near Albany. All agree as to its effects. It appears in 

 June or the early part of July, as small dark brown or blackish spots 

 from % — I millimeter in diameter. (Fig. 3). These may iudease 

 rapidly ; and as the epidermis is raised by the spores beneath these 

 spots, it becomes whitish, and a small pore appears in this raised 

 surface through which the spores (Fig. 4) held together bj' a muci- 

 lage, escape in a little tendril. On account 

 of the whitened epidermis the spots incline 

 to a rustier or grayer tint than they possess 

 at an earlier date. The general color 

 that part of the leaf infested by the fungus 

 at this stage is a dull brown. The leaves 

 soon turn yellow, begin falling before the 

 middle of July, and by the first or second 

 week in August, if not earlier, the bushes 

 ^ ^, are as bare as in November. Mr. Booth 



Fig. 4. — Spores of Glceos- 



porium Ribis. says that " uuder such circumstances the 



currants do not fully ripen but shrivel and fall off." 



The spores (Fig. 4) are one-celled, curved, .somewhat enlarged 

 at one end, and, in all North American forms reported, from iJ^-2 

 times the length of the European forms described by Saccardo. 

 The measurements given by Berkeley, Peck and those made by 

 ourselves practically agree, being from .015 — .025 millimeters in 

 length. Specimens from France in Roumeguere's Fimgi Gallici 

 No. 1873 are from .012 — .016 millimeters long, and M. C. Cooke 

 sent Ellis* specimens from Europe which were mostly .015 m. m. 

 long, while Saccardo in his great workf gives only .010 of a m.m. 

 as the length. There seems little doubt therefore of the identity 

 of the American and the European forms, nevertheless the dis- 

 ease seems to have done little injury in Europe, and until this year, 

 not to have attracted any attention whatever in America. 



It is to be hoped that the peculiarly moist summer gave it an 

 advantage it will not soon have in succeeding years, but it may be 

 necessary to carefully watch the varieties susceptible to it, next 

 June, and to apply occasionallj^ by means of a fine sprayer, like 

 the Eureka Sprayer, one of the copper solutions ; for the entrance 



*Ellis and Everhart, Journal of Mycology I, p. no. 

 JSylloge Fuugorum III, p. 706. 



