FLOWERLESS PLANTS 



463 



The Brown Rot, Monilia fructigena. Plum, cherry, and peach 

 trees are often stripped of their entire crop by this destructive fungus. 

 It probably consumes more of these fruits than all the boys and girls 

 in the country. The class should study its prevalence and distribu- 

 tion in the neighborhood along with that of the black knot. It is 

 characteristic of this 

 fungus that affected 

 fruits cling to the 

 branch over winter, 

 often cemented to- 

 gether in clusters. 

 In this condition 

 they are said to be 

 "mummied" (see 

 Fig. 192). The life 

 story of the brown 

 rot is like that of all 

 moulds: a spore 

 lodges on a fruit, 

 germinates and fills 

 the fruit with its 

 mycelium, and the 

 fruiting hyphae grow 

 out to scatter the 

 spores. If the pupils 

 will inoculate a few 

 plums, they will see 

 how rapidly this 

 fungus works, and 

 by so doing appre- 

 ciate the necessity of 

 picking and burning 



FIG. 191. THE BLACK KNOT 



(Photograph of collection prepared by Burton N. Gates, 

 aged sixteen, for his class in the high school) 



affected fruits before the spores are cast. Remedies for Monilia are 

 pruning to let in light and air, thinning plums and peaches so that 

 no two fruits touch, picking and burning all diseased fruits as soon 

 as detected, and burning all mummified fruits in the fall, since they 

 produce another crop of spores in the spring. 



