194 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



lose, almost completely, the ability to develop and ripen wood, and to form 

 dormant buds. The buds on such shoots grow as soon as they are formed, 

 or rather, as soon as they receive the initial differentiation, developing 

 into diminutive soft branches, which frequently branch again, but never 

 attain any good degree of size, vigor, or maturity. It is ordinary to find 

 fifteen to thirty primary branches and often some additional secondary 

 ones, on a shoot-axis less than three inches long, and not over one eighth 

 inch in diameter at its base. The tendency of this effort of branching is 

 from below upward, i. e., the oldest and largest branches are near the base 

 of the shoot, but almost always not quite from the base, the buds remain- 

 ing undeveloped in some of the lowest leaf axils. 



(b) The foliage. — The leaves on these dwarfed branching shoot-axes are 

 multiplied correspondingly, and the result is compact tufts or rosettes 

 containing 200 to 400 diminutive leaves, and many additional green 

 stipules which are frequently misshappen and abnormal. The older and 

 larger leaves near the base of the shoot frequently reach a length of sev- 

 eral inches and are characterized by a very pronounced inrolling of the 

 margins of the leaf, and by a certain stiffness due to a peculiar straighten- 

 ing of the midrib. These leaves turn yellow in early summer and fall very 

 readily. Jarring causes them to fall by the hundred, as if it were autumn. 

 Very often they are blotched, browned, and dead in places, especially at 

 the ends and margins, from the attacks of various leaf fungi. The 

 younger and central leaves of the rosette remain small and green and free 

 from fungi. They are usually somewhat folded, but seldom rolled. As 

 summer advances these rosettes dry up and die under the attacks of 

 Scolytus rugulosus or from the effects of the disease. The foliage of some 

 affected trees is much greener than others. Generally the prevailing color 

 from a distance is yellowish green or olivaceous. The bunching of the 

 leaves is conspicuous and makes the trees noticeable at a long distance. 

 There is not enough foliage to give shade or hide the branches. 



(c) Flowers and fruits. — So far as I can determine by inquiry, the 

 trees which developed this disease in 1891 in Mr. Husted's orchards did 

 not blossom in advance of other trees, but were somewhat tardy. On the 

 contrary, other trees in the same orchard, imported from New Jersey and 

 affected with an entirely different disease, and what appears to be genuine 

 yellows, blossomed ten days in advance of the proper time. 



Trees attacked by rosette generally drop their fruit early and while it is 

 still green or yellowish green. In June, 1891, I saw scattering fruits on 

 many diseased trees, and none of them were premature or bore any of the 

 characteristic symptoms of peach yellows. The fruit, even on badly 

 affected limbs, when there was any at all, was small, green, or yellowish 

 green, and often more or less shriveled. Fruits of this kind were also 

 common on the ground under such trees. In one instance the disease was 

 observed in Alexanders which were full of ripening fruit and affected by 

 the rosette only on about one half of the limbs. Most of the fruit had 

 already fallen from the diseased limbs, green and shriveled, but a few 

 peaches remained on the healthier portions, and these, like those on the 

 other limbs, were neither premature nor red-spotted, but were ripening at 

 the proper time and in the normal manner. The diseased branches bore 

 hundreds of yellowish rosettes; the healthy ones bore an abundance of 

 dark green, handsome foliage. 



My search for premature fruit was the more careful because I had ven- 

 tured the assertion that it would, no doubt, be found to precede the rosette. 



