BY D. McALPIXE. 443 



First Appearance in the Colonies. 



It is interesting niid useful to trace the first appearance of any 

 disease in our midst, to serve as a lesson for the future. Since 

 1891, when my first report was made upon it, this disease of the 

 peach and allied trees has been constantly under notice. In 

 certain fruit-growling districts it was only observed during season 

 1890-91 for the first time, but Mr. Neilson, of the Royal Horti- 

 cultural Gardens, Burnle}', informs me that the disease was 

 observed there al^out 1887, and he had heard of it in the Fern- 

 tree Gully district about 1885 or 1886. In the season of 1887-88 

 it was also rejDorted for New South Wales, and in season 1889-90 

 it affected a large numl)er of peach trees there, as stated in Dr. 

 Cobb's article upon it in Ag. Gaz. K.S.W. Vol. i. Pt. 1, 1890, 

 and the disease has been spreading ever since. 



I am informed by Mr. Molineux, F.L.S., Secretary to the 

 Agricultural Bureau of South Australia, that the first public 

 reference to this disease was made by the late Frazer Crawford 

 during May, 1890, in the "Garden and Field," as having been 

 observed for the Jirst time on peach trees, and he had little doubt 

 that it occurred some time before, but on plum trees. The 

 reference in Garden and Field, Yol. xv. p. 134, 1890, is worthy 

 of quotation : — " This season for the first time I observed it (i.e., 

 Puccinia prun.i) on a peach tree — or at least what I take to be 

 the same fungus. The lower two-thirds of a large Peach tree has 

 everj^ leaf spotted by it, and as they are very numerous and 

 bright yellow they give a variegated appearance to the foliage. 

 Strange to say, in a neighbour's garden, which has a 

 number of plum trees all more or less attacked, there are a couple 

 of peach trees untouched." 



It is also present in Tasmania, although Mr. Thompson, the 

 Govt. Entomologist,'"" does not refer to its first appearance there, 

 and Mr. Tryon's discovery of it in Queensland in Feliruary, 1886, 

 is undoubtedly the first definite record of its appearance in the 

 Colonies. 



* A Handbook to tlie Insect Pests of Farm and Orchard. Depart, of 

 Agriculture, Tasmania, Bull. i. p. 29, 1892. 



