744 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION K. 



1 1 . Some Injurious Fungi found in Ireland. 

 By Professor T. Johnson, D.Sc. 



The writer gave an account of (a) two cases of potato-scab, due to Spongospora 

 Solani, Bruncli. (in whicli he had found the plasmodiuna stage), and to Spkondi/lo- 

 cladium atrovirens, Harz, the conidial stage of Phellomyces sclerotiophorus, Frank. ; 

 (b) leaf-brown or dry -spot of the potato-plant, due to Sporidesmium Solani varians 

 Vafiha, and as far as time allowed of other diseases in the cereal, fodder, and 

 garden crops, of which specimens had been received from the instructors and others 

 connected with the Department of Agriculture in various parts of the country. 



A m-p showing the present state of knowledge of the distribution of the 

 dreaded American gooseberry mildew was shown. The steps taken to destroy the 

 pest were also described. 



12. Six Years' Seed-Testing in Ireland. 

 By Professor T. Johnson, D.Sc, and Miss R. Hensman. 



The writers gave an account of the results of the Seed-testing Station of the 

 Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction in Ireland, the only Govern- 

 ment station of the kind in the United Kingdom. The use made of the station 

 is indicated by the accompanying table : — 



Y No. of 



*''^' Samples tested. 



1900-2 .... 486 



1903 .... 712 



1904 .... 1,041 



The value of the station in connection with the flax industry, as well as with 

 agriculture in general, was indicated. The farmer is encouraged to get his seeds 

 tested by being charged Zd. only for a sample. Samples were described in which 

 the germination was as low as 1 to 10 per cent. Attention was also called to the 

 impurities in seeds. 



13. Acclimatised Plants. By W. Wilson. 



We find very few such plants among the very various native flora. We also 

 notice that there is difficulty in drawing the line as to what is wanted of an exotic 

 plant to make it acclimatised or naturalised. We consider the point reached when 

 those plants establish themselves in the same way as plants which have been 

 recognised as of the British flora. The natural idea is that such plants would 

 increase as old ones of this country diminished. But it may not perhaps be neces- 

 sary that old ones disappear or decrease. We have places along the sides of 

 streams, sands, and gravels which are open for occupation, and in which a new 

 plant will often pave the way for another and so on. The nursery and the garden 

 are the great seats of exotic life, giving endless chances of plants spreading from 

 them were they adapted to do it. We see many attempts of plants to adapt 

 themselves outside a garden, but the attempt usually ends by some plant or plants 

 springing up more or less abundantly, but absolutely failing to spread away through 

 the surrounding country. This applies forcibly to native plants when taken from 

 a place and planted in another where they are not native. And they seldom 

 spread away from a garden. The only species which 1 know of which as an 

 exotic plant has in recent times become a staple wild plant is Yellow Mimulus — 

 Mimulus lutetis, Linn.- — which is now recognised as M. Langsdorffii. The question 

 arises whether hybridising may not have taken place in this country and brought 

 out our plant. Whether this is the case or not, the plant has spread from gardens 

 along streams, &c., even into upland places where it has flowered and produced 

 seed, being more or less used by animals as a food plant. We find that the fox- 

 glove, Digitalis purpurea, Linn., was not noticed by early English poets ; even 

 Shakespeare does not mention it. It was first noticed in the fifteenth century as 



