NAEMOSPORA 449 



was used for cutting away a cankered portion was afterwards 

 used, without cleaning, for making an incision in a healthy 

 branch, and infection followed. The conidia germinate freely 

 in the white milky latex, and when cutting away diseased 

 portions, care should be taken not to allow the latex to come 

 in contact with healthy parts. All cut surfaces should be 

 covered with tar at once. 



Massee, Gard. Mag., July 23, 1898. 



NAEMOSPORA (PERS.) 



Spore-bed covered by the epidermis, bright coloured, 

 mucilaginous ; conidia hyaline, sausage-shaped, very minute, 

 extruded through a perforation in the epidermis in viscid 

 tendrils. 



Die back of peach shoots. Two-year-old peach shoots 

 frequently die in considerable numbers, and unless removed 

 are very conspicuous during early summer, projecting beyond 

 the green mass of foliage. On such shoots the leaf-buds 

 expand normally in the spring without any suggestion of 

 disease, but just about the time when the blossom is fully 

 expanded the young leaves suddenly wilt, turn brown, and 

 die within a few days. At the same time the petals change 

 to a rusty brown colour and the flowers droop, but remain 

 attached to the branch for some time, as also do the leaves. 

 Finally the shoots bearing wilted leaves and flowers assume a 

 deep claret-red colour, and shrivel more or less as the season 

 advances. During the months of May and June of the 

 following year these dead branches become studded with 

 minute, dull, orange-coloured tendrils oozing out of the wood. 

 The tendrils consist of masses of very minute conidia, about 

 3 X i />t, embedded in mucilage, and belong to Naemospora 

 crocea (Bon.), the cause of the disease. 



Only very young shoots can be infected, and probably the 

 conidia are conveyed on the feet of birds from diseased to 

 healthy shoots. 



AH diseased shoots should be removed before the conidia 

 are formed. 



Massee, Kew Bull^ 1908, p. 269. 



2 F 



