380 Notes and Comments. 
would one expect to find, at the foot of the Preface, anything 
like this :—‘ 8556. 750.—-Wt. 20003, 8/07, Wy. & S. 3577r. a.’? 
SYCAMORE: LEAF BLOTCH. 
Perhaps one of the most disfiguring and certainly one of 
the most common of the diseases of trees in different parts of the 
country is the Sycamore Leaf Blotch. This has recently formed 
the subject of one of the useful leaflets issued by the Board, of 
Agriculture and Fisheries. From it we learn that the blotches 
are due to a fungus, Rhytisma acerinum Fries., and when once 
infected the trees get worse year by year, until eventually the 
tree dies, as the fungus prevents the leaf from doing its work, 
enfeebles the tree, and thus exposes it to even more deadly 
Sycamore Leaf Blotch, Rhytisma aceriaum Fries. 
parasitic fungi, such as the Coral Spot fungus. ‘The method 
for preventing a continuance of this disease is both simple and 
effective. .. The young leaves are infected in spring by 
floating spores which escape at that season from dead leaves 
which have been lying on the ground during the winter. If 
all such dead leaves are collected and burned directly they fall 
in the autumn, or at latest before the young leaves unfold in 
the spring, the disease will be arrested.’ We are indebted to 
the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries for permission to 
reproduce the illustration. 
Naturalist, 
