lo July. 1909.] .4 Fiiii^i^iis-likc Appearance on Apple Trees. 



437 



most cells are thrown off in the form of Icjose fluffy material. After this 

 necessary preliminarx ex]>lanation, it will be easy to understand the 

 appearance presented 1)\ the imported apple trees (Fig. 4). The apple 

 trees confined in a close box, without ventilation, and possessed of a certain 

 aimount of sap, produced an excessive amount of corky tissue at those points 

 (lenticels) where the moisture escaped, and this swelling up and detachment 

 of the outer loose cells as thev became dry, fully explains the condition in 

 which they arrived at the end of the voyage (Figs, s and 4). When 

 planted, however, under proper conditions, they grow all right. 



In the Tra)isvaal Agricultural Journal for January, 1909, there is a 

 splendid illustration of the fungus-like appearance presented by apple-tree 

 stocks, in the form of a photograph of some sent to Pretoria from Victoria 

 ■(^"%- 5)- It is, however, named " Apple Tree Canker {N ectria ditissima, 

 Tul.)," and in a report upon it by L B. Pole Evans, B.A., B.Sc, F.L.S., 

 Plant Pathologist to the Department of Agriculture there, it is stated that 

 ^' The fungus {Nectria ditissima) was found in a consignment of 5,000 

 young apple trees sent to Pretoria from Melbourne, Australia. All the 

 trees were infected and consequenth" were promptlv destroved bv the 



3. CROSS SECTION OF LENTICEL. 



Department of Agriculture as soon as the disease was detected."" If a 

 4^omparison is made between the apple trees imported from Britain and the 

 stocks exported from this State into Pretoria, there is seen to be a very 

 •close resemblance, as shown in the photographs, and when it is realized 

 that the .so-called fungus-growth is simply due to the excessive production 

 and swelling of the cork\ tissues in the one case, there are reasonable 

 grounds for supposing that it is the same in the other. It is worthy of 

 note that in the Pretoria consignment all the trees were stated to be infected 

 and when it is considered that every one of them was subject to the same 

 conditions on the voyage, it t)ecomes evident how the\- all presented a 

 similar appearance. 



A brief history of the consignment in question will now be given. 

 There were 5,000 Northern Spv one-vear-old stocks forwarded to Pretoria 

 ■on 24th Augu.st of last year, 3,000 of them being 12 to 15 inches long, 

 and 2.000, 6 to 9 inches long. Thev were sent in an ordinary packing-case 

 and packed in moss obtained in the neighbourhood of the nursery. The 

 moss was laid out in the bottom of the case to a depth of 2 inches, then a 

 layer of stocks, above that a layer of moss, then another layer of stocks, 

 and so on, until the case was filled. Thev would reach their destination 

 \n about a month from the time of shipment. It was rather late in the 



