$2 Proceedings 
No deeper infection of the cherry tree takes place, that is to say, 
the spawn (mycelium) of the fungus stops short at the base of 
the leaf-stalk and does not enter into the tissue of the branch, 
When this life-history is known, the grower sees that if he can 
once prevent the re-infection of the young leaves in the spring 
his trees will stand healthy again. He can secure this by one of 
two methods. He can pick off (and burn)during the winter months 
all the leaves hanging on the trees. In the largest cherry-growing 
district in Prussia,when a severe outbreak of the present disease 
occurred, the State passed an Order making the picking off and 
burning of all the leaves compulsory over the whole of the affected 
district; in two years the cherry orchards were restored to per- 
fect health, although previously for many years the trees had been 
attacked and the crop ruined. Or the grower can spray the trees 
with a wash containing copper, at the time when the young 
leaves have just opened, so as to cover them with a spray which 
will kill the spores of the Gnomonia, when ejected from the 
conceptacles, before they can enter and infect the young leaf. 
The ‘Brown Rot’ disease is caused by the fungus Sclerotinia 
Sructigena. This fungus attacks all kinds of fruit-trees; cherry, 
apple, pear, peach, plum, &c. A knowledge of the life-history 
is of the greatest help to the grower. The details of the method 
of attack are slightly different according to the plant attacked; 
we will take the plum as an example. The signs of the presence 
of ‘Brown Rot’ in plums are the withering of much of the 
blossom; the ‘dying back’ of the branches, and especially the 
rotting of the plums just when they should be ripening. In 
some varieties, e.g. in Pond’s Seedling, it is no uncommon thing 
for ‘Brown Rot’ to destroy one-third of the crop, season after 
season, besides injuriously affecting the growth of the tree. Now 
the peculiarity of this disease is that the plums (or it may be 
apples or cherries) which are turned rotten,do not for the most 
part fall from the tree, but remain, bearing the fungus in a 
dried-up or ‘mummified’ condition on the boughs of the tree. 
It is a very common sight to see numerous bunches of a dozen 
or more of these ‘mummified’ plums, covered over with an 
abundant growth of the fungus, on a plum-tree in flower. Such 
bunches have remained on the tree from the previous summer, 
