224 AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. [Jan. 



{Sambucus Canadensis), and its cultivated variety aurea, 

 and was sent from Brookline by W. H. Manning, Esq., 

 who reported it as greatly disfiguring the ornamental cut- 

 leaved black elder (S. nigra, var. lactmata). It occurs 

 on the leaf blades and stalks, where it causes the normal 

 tissue to become greatly overdeveloped, producing large, 

 fleshy masses, which distort the leaf and bear the spore 

 cups on their surfaces. 



The fungus is one which is difficult to deal with, as so 

 little is known of its life history. It is the cluster-cup stage 

 of one of the rust fungi, and none of the other stages has 

 been found on the elder. It is probable that these occur on 

 some other host plant ; but, until the connection is estab- 

 lished, little can be done to prevent its attacks, except to 

 remove the affected foliage and burn it. The fact of the 

 prevalence of the fungus in one season, however, does not 

 prevent its being very rare in the next ; and the controlling 

 conditions are, as yet, very little understood. 



The Rust of Blackberries and ( Raspberries {Cce- 

 oma nitens Schw.) is one of the commonest and most 

 striking of our fungi. It produces at first a stunted and 

 yellowish appearance of the shoots attacked, which is soon 

 followed by the development of the spores in brilliant orange 

 patches, almost or quite covering the lower surfaces of the 

 leaves. 



Experiments point to the probability that its spread by 

 means of its spores can be checked by spraying with the 

 Bordeaux mixture ; but when a plant is once attacked there 

 is no alternative but to dig it up and burn it, since the vege- 

 tative threads of the fungus live through the winter in the 

 stalks, and thence penetrate the new shoots and leaves in 

 the spring, developing the spores on the leaves. The spores 

 are summer spores and have not yet been proved to be con- 

 nected with any resting-spore form, but it is not improb- 

 able that such a connection may yet be traced ; though its 

 ability to hibernate in the host plant makes it possible that 

 we have to deal with an independent form. 



The Hollyhock Rust (Puccinia Malvacearum Mont.) 

 has become, within a few years, an important disease in 

 Massachusetts. It is a native of Chili, whence it was intro- 



