NOTES ON PLANT DISEASES OF CONNECTICUT. 733 



by the somewhat fusiform swollen stems and by the bunching 

 of the leaves, shown by the halftones in Plate XXXVI a. Not 

 all swellings of the stem, however, are due to rust, as insect 

 and other injuries may produce such distortions in young seed- 

 lings. During the months of May and June the fruiting stage 

 shows on the swollen stems as small, white, oblong blisters 

 that upon rupture reveal an orange mass of spores. These 

 gradually wear away, and then positive evidence of infection 

 is more or less difficult. The mycelium remains in the infected 

 tissues, gradually spreading to the new growth, and renews its 

 fruiting stage each spring, unless the death of the host intervenes. 

 The spores produced on the pine do not spread the disease to 

 other pines, but develop two other spore stages on both goose- 

 berries and currants, the last stage carrying the fungus back 

 to the pines. 



Many writers consider this rust as a very serious menace 

 to white pines. The writer is not so much afraid of it in this 

 state because of the scarcity of the alternative hosts, and also 

 because it looks to him as if most of the damage comes from 

 the use of infected seedlings, which we should be able to largely 

 eliminate here. Such infection as might occur after the pines 

 once got a good start in the forests we are inclined to believe 

 would be rare, and not nearly so injurious to the host. We 

 have heard of one large importer of white pines who intends 

 also to import a large number of currant bushes for commercial 

 purposes. Such a condition offers a chance for the rust to do 

 considerable harm if it once gets started in -either of his plan- 

 tations. 



The native pine-sweetfern rust, which we describe elsewhere, 

 seems to us to be just as virulent as this rust, and one much 

 more likely to spread generally here, on account of the frequency 

 of its alternate host, the sweetfern. Yet, with the exception of 

 the plantation at Rainbow, where pines were infected in the seed 

 beds, we have seen and heard of no damage by this rust. This 

 rust does not occur on the white pine, though it has several 

 other species for its hosts. 



PRIVET, Ligustrum vulgare. 



ANTHRACNOSE, Glceosporium cingulatum Atk. Mr. Coe, of the 

 Elm City Nursery Company, first called the writer's attention 



