J. SAUNDERS — witches' BROOMS. 73 



appear to be injuriously affected. The striking appearance of 

 the tree has commanded so much attention that a representative 

 of the firm of Messrs. Lane, of Berkhamsted, the well-known 

 horticulturists, called on Mr. Plummer, as a client had reqviested 

 Messrs. Lane to supply him with a similar tree, which was 

 evidently impracticable, even had they desired to do so. 

 Mr. Phunmer states that the foliage of the brooms opens 

 before that of the normal branches, and also fades earlier. 

 These growths bear a few male catkins, which, with the accom- 

 panying foliage, furnish unmistakable evidence of the attacks of 

 a parasitic fungus. All the brooms on this tree are pendent, 

 whereas a single broom on a birch at Wardown, about a quarter 

 of a mile distant, is erect. There are several instances of 

 Witches' Brooms occurring on birch-trees in the immediate 

 vicinity of Watford, examples of which are shown on Plate V. 



A description of these growths appears in the translation 

 by Dr. W. G. Smith of Tubeuf's ' Diseases of Plants,' p. 160, 

 which is here qvioted entire : " On close examination of brooms 

 which undoubtedly bore Exoascus, I found that a broom results 

 from the prolific development of small twigs on a few knotty 

 swollen parts of a branch. Each central knot we may regard as 

 the position of the bud which was first infected, and from which 

 the broom-system took its origin. As one result of the attack 

 of the fungus, the greater number of the l>uds in the axils of the 

 scales of the infected bud have grown out as twigs, but not into 

 well-developed ones. In consequence, nearly every twig has been 

 killed back by the winter, but not completely, so that from each 

 twig-base have sprung a new crop of stunted immature twigs like 

 the first, and equally liable to be killed in the following winter. 

 Thus has arisen that tangled mass of dead or sickly birch twigs 

 which we call witches' brooms." 



Hornbeam {Carpimis Betulus, L.). — For several years prior 

 to 1901, Witches' Brooms were plentiful on hornbeam (PL VI) 

 in a plantation near Chaul End, about a mile south-west from 

 Luton. During that year the trees and shrubs were cut down and 

 the brooms destroyed. At this place the growths were pendent, 

 probably owing to the comparative yovith of the trees, none of 

 them exceeding 25 or 30 years of age. The growth of foliage on 

 the brooms was excessive, which caused the affected branches to 

 droop by gravitation. Most of them closely resembled the figure 

 in Tubeuf's ' Diseases of Plants,' p. 160, except that they were 

 pendent instead of erect as shown in his illustration. The 

 largest specimen met with in this locality was forwarded to the 

 British Musemn, South Kensington, where it is exhibited in the 

 public gallery ; and Mr. Britten remarked that it was the finest 

 example which had come into their possession. The leaves on 

 these growths were smaller than the type, crowded, crimipled, 

 and variously coloured, ranging from greenish pink to deep 

 crimson. Dr. W. Gr. Smith, in a letter dated 14th January, 1904, 

 ascribes this disease to Exoascus Carpini ( = Ta2)hrina Carpini), 



