New York Agricultural Experiment Station. 455 



ings recommended* for apple scab would probably control the 

 Phyllosticta disease also. Observations made the past season 

 indicate that this may not be true. At Cutchogue, an apple 

 tree which had been sprayed with Bordeaux mixture three times; 

 once before blossoming and twice after (April 27th, May 19th and 

 June 3d), on June 10th was found to be badly spotted with 

 Phyllosticta, many leaves having already fallen.- It should be 

 stated, however, that the Bordeaux mixture used for the last 

 two applications was not freshly prepared. It seems scarcely 

 possible that Bordeaux mixture, properly prepared and properly 

 applied, can fail to prevent this disease. 



Two Common Diseases of the Sunflower. 



The common garden sunflower, Helianthus annims, is not a 

 plant of much importance here, but this note may be of interest 

 to those who have observed the dying of the lower leaves of sun- 

 flowers and would like to know its cause. The sunflower is 

 subject to several diseases, but the two under consideration are 

 much more common than the others; in fact, they are almost 

 universal. Every one familiar with these plants has observed 

 that the lower leaves turn brown, shrivel and fall off, leaving 

 only a few green leaves on the upper part of the stalk. Thia 

 is so common that some probably think it the normal condition 

 of the plant; but it is a disease, or rather two diseases, caused 

 by two species of parasitic fungi. The first of these to appear 

 is the disease caused by the fungus, Sepioria Helianthi Ell. & 

 Kell. In the early stages of this disease the lowest leaves turn 

 brown along the margins and at the tips. Soon the entire 

 leaf becomes brown, shrivels and falls off. The unaided eye can 

 see nothing upon the leaf, but when a small portion of a dis 

 eased leaf is placed under a compound microscope, numerous 

 small, dark-brown, hollow, spherical bodies (perithecia) are seen. 

 If one of these spherical bodies is crushed it is found to contain 

 several slender, colorless spores. (See Fig. 3, Plate XXXII.) A 



♦ New York Exp. Sta., Bulletin No. 86, p. 70. 



