December. 1958 



CvRTIiR: Al'I'LlliD IJOTANY AND Pl.ANT PaTHOI.O(;Y 



149 



t;il plants, especialh trees (Tehon 1925, 

 \939h, \939c, 1943; Tehon & Stout 



, 1928; Tehon & Tacks 1933; Tehon & 



! Boewe 1939 ; Tehon & Harris 1941 ) . He 



was especially interested in developing 



methods and principles for interpreting 



the phenology of crop pests (Tehon 1928). 



Tehon's botanical interests are indi- 



! cated by such publications as The Native 



I find Naturalized Trees of Illinois (with 

 Robert B. Miller), Rout the Weeds, 

 Pleasure fflth Plants, Fieldbook of Na- 



, tiz'e Illinois Shrubs, The Drug Plants of 

 Illinois, and (with collaborators) Illinois 



' Plants Poisonous to Livestock (Miller & 

 Tehon 1929; Tehon 1937«, 1939^, 1942, 



i 1 95 1«; Tehon, Morrill, & Graham 1946). 

 He was a linguist and translated Gio- 

 vanni Targioni Tozzetti's Alimurgia, 

 part V, 1767, an Italian article of 156 

 pages on diseases of wheat and other 

 cereals; the translation was published in 

 English as Phvtopathological Classics No. 

 9 (Tehon 1952«). 



REGENT ACTIVITIES 



The early work in the Section of Bot- 

 any consisted not only of a survey of the 

 plant diseases in the state but the de- 

 velopment and co-ordination of research 

 in botany, with special emphasis on plant 

 diseases and the establishment of a her- 

 barium, which included a plant disease 

 collection and a native plant collection. 

 In an annual report Forbes (1923:386) 

 described the work of the botanical sec- 

 tion as follows : 



Beginning in July, 1921, active work has 

 been done throughout the State on the fungus 

 parasites of the crop plants, many of which 

 are highly destructive and difficult to control. 

 It was the principal first object of this in- 

 quiry to make accessible existing knowledge 

 of the plant diseases of the State and of their 

 distribution in Illinois and their destructive- 

 ness, and to ascertain whether known meth- 

 ods of protection against them are generally 

 used, this to be followed by measures intended 

 to make crop growers acquainted with the 

 most important preventable diseases and the 

 losses due to them and with established 

 means for their prevention and control. 



To aid in the work of the Section of 

 Botany the co-operation of 135 unpaid 

 field observers was obtained to watch for 

 plant diseases and to report any unusual 

 outbreaks of diseases occurring at anv 



time. The information obtained included 

 the crops attacked by each disease, the 

 stage of growth of the crop when at- 

 tacked, the damage caused, the first date 

 of appearance of disease, the amount of 

 damage to the crop, the control measures 

 used, and the prevalence and destructive- 

 ness of each disease. 



As the work of the Section of Botany 

 continued to expand, greater emphasis 

 was placed on the application of research 

 information for the control of plant dis- 

 eases, and in 1935 the name of the section 

 was changed to Section of Applied Bot- 

 any and Plant Pathology. At this time 

 the activities of the section were divided 

 into four main groups, namely, (1) 

 Plant Disease Survey, (2) Botanical Sur- 

 vey, (3) Shade and Forest Tree Pathol- 

 ogy, and (4) Floricultural Pathology. 

 The first full-time staff member to con- 

 duct research on floricultural pathology 

 was not appointed until 1939. 



Plant Disease Survey 



The plant disease survey, started by 

 Tehon in 1921, included a survey of the 

 diseases of all crop plants of Illinois, 

 with special emphasis on field crops and 

 fruit crops. Among the persons who have 

 assisted in the plant disease survey since 

 its beginning are Charles O. Peake, 

 Charles L. Porter, O. A. Plunkett, Harry 

 W. Anderson, Paul A. Young, Gilbert L. 

 Stout, and G. H. Boewe. Constantine J. 

 Alexopoulos and Leo Campbell collected 

 numerous plants around peach orchards 

 in southern Illinois counties as part of a 

 study of possible hosts of the peach yel- 

 lows virus. 



Field Crop Diseases. — After the 

 establishment of the Section of Botany in 

 July of 1921, flag smut of wheat was 

 the first major disease studied. This dis- 

 ease, discovered in Illinois in 1919, was 

 causing serious losses of wheat in the 

 East St. Louis area. The limits of the 

 disease in the state were determined, and 

 effective control measures, including a 

 quarantine, were enforced. By following 

 rigid quarantine regulations, which re- 

 (juired burning all straw and treating all 

 grain sold for seed, and by introducing 

 varieties of wheat resistant to the disease, 

 it was possible to eliminate flag smut. 

 The effectiveness of this control program 



