224 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



mildew, PJasmopara viticola. It resisted infection in such a bad 

 mildew season as 1915. It grows well on land not too high nor cold, 

 and not too liberally irrigated. The wine from its grapes keeps well 

 and is of good quality. 



Notes on Australian Fungi, No. II.* — J. Burton Clelaud and 

 Edwin Cheel give an account of Phalloids and Geasters, supplementing 

 C. Gr. Lloyd's Phalloids of Australasia. The authors, from public and 

 private collections, are able to confirm and add notes to Lloyd's 

 descriptions. They give full accounts of all the species, and tliey add 

 a list of Phalloids as amended by them, which includes ten genera and 

 twenty species. They have studied the Geasters with equal care, and 

 publish a final list of some twenty-two Australasian species. 



Effects of the Brown-rot Fungus on Peach. — L. A. Hawkins 

 describes his experiments on peaches which he inoculated in the 

 laboratory with the fungus Sderotiiua cinerea taken from pure cultures. 

 When the fruit was half-rotted it was spUt in two and the contents 

 of the halves analyzed and compared. Hawkins describes the process 

 of examination and the results : — " The pentosan content remains 

 practically the same, the acid content is increased, the amount of 

 alcohol-insoluble substance which reduces Fehling's solution when 

 hydrolyzed with dilute hydrochloric acid decreases, the total sugar 

 content decreases, while the cane-sugar practically disappears." 



Plant Diseases. :j: — T. Petch has published a note on the occurrence 

 of Citrus mildew in Ceylon, where it is a common disease. It covers 

 the leaves and young shoots at the end of the Monsoon with a thick 

 white coating, and in some districts kills back the trees so regularly that 

 they never grow up. Mildews or their Oidium stages are very common 

 in Ceylon, but no perithecial stage of Erysiphe has yet been found. 



Diseases of Peas due to Mildews, &c.,§ have been described and 

 methods of control advised. Erysiphe Polygoni attacks young pea 

 plants and they die off as maturity is reached — leaves, pods, and stems 

 being covered with the fungus. Spraying, to be effective, should be 

 begun early. Peronospora Vicise, the pea mildew, also attacks the 

 growing plant and destroys the leaves, covering them with a delicate 

 white mould. All diseased material should be burned in this case, and 

 rotation of crops is desirable. Uromyces fahse or rust attacks not only 

 peas but broad beans and various vetches and plants belonging to the 

 pea family. The plants are first attacked in spring ; winter spores 

 which carry on the life of the fungus are formed in autumn. Spraying 

 is of no avail ; all infected plants should be burned. Ascochyta Pisi 

 attacks the leaves and pods, and the latter often become more or less 

 contorted and seeds are not formed. Spraying is desirable, as it holds 

 the parasite in check. PhytophfJiora sp. (probably Ph. oninivora) 



* Journ. and Proc. Roy. Soc, xlix. (1915) pp. 199-232 (2 pis). 



t Amer. Journ. Bot. ii. (1915) pp. 71-81. 



X Phytopathology, v. (1915) pp. 350-1. 



§ Board of Agric. Leaflet, No. 287 (1915) 4 pp. 



