RECENT AMERICAN PAPERS ON FUNGI 240 



destroy the tree. The value of the report is greatly enhanced by 

 photographs and drawmgs. 



Mr. Erwin F. Smith has given us, in Bulletin No. 26, an 

 account of Wakker's hyacinth germ, Pseiidumonas UyacintJd, which 

 causes a disease of hyacinths known as '* the yellow disease," or 

 " Wakker's disease." Mr. Smith has followed Wakker in his 

 investigation, and has confirmed the bacterial nature of the 

 disease by a long and careful series of cultures and innoculations 

 of healthy plants. The microbe, he tells us, " enters the plant 

 through wounds, and multiplies in the vascular system, filling the 

 vessels, especially those of the bulb, with a bright yellow slime 

 consisting of bacteria." Gradually the whole plant is destroyed, 

 and great loss is caused to hyacinth growers. The disease is con- 

 fined to the Netherlands. The subject of bacteria causing diseases 

 of plants is occupying more and more the attention of plant 

 pathologists, and all additions to our knowledge are sincerely 

 welcome. 



Bulletin No. 27, issued by the same Department, deals with the 

 " Wilt-disease of Cotton, and its control." The disease, which is 

 caused by a fungus that lives in the soil and attacks the roots of the 

 cotton-plant, had been already described by Mr. Erwin Smith in a 

 previous Bulletin. Mr. W. A. Orton has been experimenting on 

 the best methods of combating the disease, and gives the results in 

 this paper. It has been found impossible to kill the fungus by the 

 application of fungicides to the soil, or to the plants attacked. He 

 strongly advises growers to avoid planting cotton on infected soils, 

 and, above all, to choose for cultivation the plants that have been 

 proved to be resistant. Parasitic fungi are curiously selective as to 

 their host, and, for no apparent reason, one variety of a species is 

 preyed upon and another left. 



From the New York Agricultural Experiment Station there 

 have been issued recently three Bulletins dealing with parasitic 

 fungi. No. 182 gives the result of experiments with sulphur-lime 

 in the prevention of onion-smut, Urocystis CepidcB, a disease which 

 works much havoc in certain districts in America. The sulphur- 

 lime is sown along with the onion-seed, and the benefit to the onion 

 crops has been very marked. No. 185 discusses an appie-tree canker 

 caused by Sphmwpsis Malonun. The fungus grows also on pear, 

 quince, and hawthorn. Scraping the bark and whitewashing is 

 recommended as a cure. 



An account of the ravages of WUzucionia occupies Bulletin 

 No. 186. It is a sterile fungus forming a brown mycelium, and 

 occasionally sclerotia. It has been found to be the cause of disease 

 in a large series of plants both in Europe and America. These 

 papers are valuable additions to our knowledge of plant-diseases, 

 and their prevention or cure. 



Mr. C. G. Lloyd, of Cincinnati, has been publishing at intervals 

 Mycological Notes dealing with the larger fungi, which he is willing 

 to send to all students of these plants, free of charge. The latest 

 of these, issued in Dec. 1900, deals with the Collybias of Cincinnati. 

 Mr. Lloyd pays no regard to tradition in his systematic work ; he 



Journal of Botany. — Vol. 39. [July, 1901.] t 



