

1909] BRIEFER ARTICLES 



409 



Miss 



Fergusons 



In fig- 5 the second pollen tube is evidently on its way to the smallest 

 of the three archegonia, and is taking its way laterally through the tissue of 

 the prothallus instead of down the canal leading to the neck. 



The third archegonium is apparently sunken in the tissues of the 

 prothallus, but unfortunately the series is incomplete, and it may have only 

 a very obliquely placed neck. For the same reason it is impossible to say 

 whether this proembryo is really parthenogenetic, as it appears to be. 

 W. T. Saxton, South African College, Cape Town. 



CARNATION ALTERNARIOSE* 



(with eight figures) 



» 



To a leaf-and-stem disease of the cultivated carnation, Dianthus 

 Caryophyllus L., our attention was called by local florists as causing serious 

 damage. The disease, upon examination, proved to be one hitherto unde- 

 scribed and a laboratory study of it was undertaken. 5 



Symptoms. — The disease manifests itself as spots, mostly upon the 

 leaves, sometimes upon the stems, especially at the nodes. These spots 

 are strikingly characteristic, of ashen whiteness, with the center occupied by 

 an often scanty, though sometimes profuse, black fungous growth. The 

 diseased spot is dry, somewhat shrunken, thinner than healthy portions of 

 the leaf, approximately circular, though often somewhat elongated in the 

 direction of the longitudinal axis of the leaf {fig. 1). When occurring at 

 the node, the disease usually involves the bases of both of the leaves, 

 a s well as the stem between them (fig. 2). As these nodal spots age, the 

 disease penetrates through the stem, killing its tissue, which shrinks some- 



3 Ferguson, M. C, Contributions to the knowledge of the life-history of Pinus, 

 w ith special reference to sporogenesis, the development of the gametophytes and 

 Utilization. Proc. Washington Acad. Sci. 6:1-202. pis. 1-24. 1904. 



4 This termination was suggested by the authors in Annales Mycologici 7:49. 

 x 909> with the following explanation: "We believe that much will be gained both in 

 Nearness and brevity by designating diseases in plants by the uniform termination 

 ' 0se ' (Lat. ants, signifying 'full of) added as a suffix to the genus of the causal 

 fungus, with or without elision of the ultimate syllable of the generic name, in whole 

 0r m part, as may be determined by euphony." 



5 Through the kindness of Dr. W. A. Orton of the U. S. Department of Agricul- 

 tUf e, B. P. I., we learn that a Macrosporium disease of carnation was reported from 

 Strassburg, P a ., in 1906, and one attributed to Alternaria from Connecticut by Clinton 

 ,n the same year. 



