The New York Botanical Garden 



A SERIOUS CHESTNUT DISEASE. 



A serious disease of our native chestnut, which threatens the 



extinction of this valuable tree in and about New York City, was 



brought to my attention last summer by Mr. H. W. Merkel, of 



the New York Zoological Park, and has been under investiga- 



The immense number of dead and dying chestnut trees in the 

 Zoological Park first caused Mr. Merkel to suspect the pres- 

 ence of a destructive fungus. The ravages of this fungus among 

 the young chestnut trees of the nursery were later observed by 

 him and the trees sprayed with Bordeaux mixture, a treatment 

 afterwards administered to the larger trees in the Zo61ogical 

 Park. The same disease has been found to exist among the 

 chestnuts of New Jersey, Maryland and Virginia, and it is prob- 

 able that the death of the chestnut in the lowlands of Alabama 

 and Georgia, as noted by Mohr and Small, is largely due to this 

 agency. 



Inquiries from various sources regarding the disease and the 

 hope that suggestions made now may be of service during the 

 present season have led me to publish at this time a preliminary 



description for a later paper. 



Pure cultures from affected chestnut sprouts in the Botanical 

 Garden were made last autumn, and transferred to agar, bean 

 stems, and sterilized chestnut twigs ; on all of which the fungus 

 grew rapidly and fruited abundantly. Living chestnut twigs 



