154 Scientific Proceedings, Royal Dublin Society. 



the spot, some idea as to the cause of the trouble. I was the more 

 interested in the question as the pest was a source of loss to the 

 well-known basket industry at Letterfrack which Miss S. Sturge 

 had started for philanthropic reasons, and to which she had given 

 some seven years in teaching the boys the trade, and in making the 

 industry a commercial success. There are some twelve acres of 

 osiers planted, some at Letterfrack, but the greater part at Rock- 

 field, a mile nearer Olifden. I found cankered rods at both 

 centres, though much more common at Letterfrack, and saw 

 much to support the impression I had formed that the disease was 

 actually in the sets first planted, and imported from England 

 five or six years ago. This impression was strongly supported 

 by the microscopic examination of cankered rods from the 

 original source of supply in England, which I found to be suffer- 

 ing from the same disease. It is possible to trace the disease 

 from the set to the canker on the rod. The tissue of both set 

 and rod is discoloured and disorganised. The cambium on the 

 canker side of the rod is killed, and the pith also shows the effects 

 of the fungus both above and below the canker-spot. Microscopic 

 examination also shows the fungal hyphse present. A canker in 

 the willow, due to Melampsora allii-fragilis, Klebahn, a fungus 

 indicated by orange-yellow spots on leaf and stem, has been 

 recently described in England. I satisfied myself, by examination 

 of some of this English " Melampsora " material, that the canker 

 I am describing in the Irish and the connected English rods had 

 nothing in common with this Melampsora canker, though Melam- 

 psora does occur in the Irish willows, chiefly in their leaves, and 

 occasionally causes a rod-canker. 



In estimating the loss to a crop by the attacks of a disease, it 

 is necessary to take into account, not only the damaged plants 

 before one's eyes, but the missing plants which might have been 

 present but for the ravages of the disease. 



This feature in a disease is very strikingly illustrated in the 

 beds : many of the sets have died completely ; others have a few 

 feebly developed rods; others have some healthy rods with cankered 

 ones on the same set. One field of osiers at Eockfield was almost a 

 complete failure. The impression I formed was that, while the sets 

 planted were diseased when put into the ground, the conditions of 

 cultivation of the rods increased the trouble, and gave the fungus 



