544 EXPEEIMENT STATION RECORD. [Vol.41 



disease having been shown to be due, here as elsewhere, to Pseudomonas 

 citri. 



Diseases and animal pests of cultivated plants during 1917 and 1918 in 

 Dutch East Indies, C. J. J. van Hall {Dcpt. Landb., Nijv. en Handel [Dutch 

 East Indies], Meded. Lab. Plantensiektm, Nos. 33 {1918), pp. J,2; 36 {1919), pp. 

 49). — In connection with a discussion of the somewhat unusual weather attend- 

 ing the monsoons of 1916 and 1917, systematic accounts are given for 1917 and 

 1918 of injury in different sections by diseases and parasitic animals to plants. 

 This is followed by an account of legal measures looking to control of animal 

 pests and plant diseases. 



Biologic specialization in the genus Septoria, W. S. Beach {Amer. Jour. 

 Bot., 6 {1919), No. 1, pp. 1-33, pi. 1, figs. 1J,).—A study of the genus Septoria is 

 said to show that certain species are differentiated into biologic forms, the 

 species being limited to a few closely related hosts which they infect vigorously, 

 though in some cases members of two or three related genera are susceptible to 

 the same fungus. The symptoms differ with the hosts and conditions, and for 

 this reason are unreliable in taxonomy. It is stated that S. malvicola and S. 

 fairmani are identical. S". convolviili as described for the host Convolvulus 

 arvensis is said to be biologically, as well as morphologically, distinct from the 

 forms described for the host C. sepium, and to be therefore entitled to rank as 

 a distinct species. 



Wheat diseases in Java, B. Palm {Dept. Landb., Nijv. en Handel [Dutch 

 East Indies], Meded. Lab. Plantenziekten, No. 3^ {1918), pp. 22, pi. 1, figs. 12).— 

 Ustilago tritici and Gibberella saubinetii {Fusarium rostratum) are said to 

 have appeared recently on wheat in Java, having been imported supposedly 

 with seed grain. Attacks on diseased wheat are noted also as due to Helmin- 

 tliosporiiim gramineum, H. geniculatum, and Nigrospora i)anici. A brief ac- 

 count of control measures is followed by a short list of related publications. 



The control of rust [in Manitoba], V. W. Jackson {Agr. Gas. Canada, 5 



{1918), No. 10, pp. 974, 915, figs. 2).— After the 1916 outbreak of wheat rust in 

 Manitoba, which is said to have caused losses aggregating over $100,000,000 to 

 the Western Provinces, methods were adopted to remove causes so far as 

 known. Following a rust conference at the Manitoba Agricultural College in 

 August, 1917, there was a spring drive on the barberry bushes, which were 

 completely eradicated, with the exception of a few kept for experimental pur- 

 poses. No outbreak occurred on these nntil artificially inoculated from stub- 

 ble of wild barley, which seems to be especially susceptible to the rust and its 

 most dangerous carrier. Wheat stubble tied in barberry bushes developed no 

 infection, though wild barley stubble treated in the same way gave a heavy 

 crop of pecidiospores a few days later. 



A disease of flax seedlings caused by a species of Colletotrichum, and 

 transmitted by infected seed, G. H. Pethybridge and H. A. Lafferty {Sci. 

 Proc. Roy. Dublin Soc, n. ser., 15 {1918), No. 30, pp. 359-384, pis. ^) .—Attention 

 having been drawn in 1916 to the disease of young flax seedlings in the north 

 of Ireland somewhat similar to that described as yellowing or firing, the au- 

 thors have .studied the disease, isolating a fungus which is claimed to be the 

 cause of the trouble, and which is technically described as a new species under 

 the name Collctotrichnni Unicohim. A detailed account of the symptoms em- 

 phasizes the development of spots on the leaves and lesions on the stems, often 

 causing a sort of damping off. The disease somewhat resembles flax canker in 

 the United States attributed to C. lini, but more closely the disease of flax 

 ascribed to a Colletotrichum of undetermined species in Holland. 



Tlie mycelium hibernates within the epidermal cells of the seed coat, from 

 this source infecting the seedlings during or after germination. Deep planting 



