June IS, 1915] 



SCIENCE 



913 



low. The diseases were present in so large a 

 percentage of the market berries as to make 

 it apparent that they are real economic factors. 

 In a recent trip to the Louisiana strawberry 

 fields (April, 1915), I found the same fungi 

 present upon berries still in the fields. The 

 fungi have been isolated in pure culture and 

 inoculations made. It seems desirable there- 

 fore to call attention to them at this time. A 

 complete presentation of their study will be 

 made later. 



Strawberry Fruit Rot Due to Patellina 8p. 



This rot begins either on green or ripe 

 berries as a microscopic spot which enlarges 

 slowly in green berries and more rapidly in 

 ripe ones. In ripe berries the spot becomes 

 sunken, the area tan colored. The margin is 

 quite definite. The surface is soon studded 

 thickly with sporodochia which vary from 

 globular to patelliform to saucer-shaped, 

 usually with a distinct, often wrinkled sterile 

 margin. In color they vary from hyaline to 

 tan, or when resting on the ripe berry they may 

 take on completely the color of the berry. 



The core of the diseased spot is completely 

 occupied by the mycelium, rendering it of 

 spongy tenacious texture. The host cells 

 along a narrow line separating the diseased 

 from the normal area are softened and separ- 

 ated from each other, evidently by enzyme 

 action. It is therefore possible to lift out in 

 its entirety the diseased tissue. The spot in a 

 ripe berry increases in size sufficiently fast to 

 involve the whole of a large berry in about 

 four days. The fungus has been isolated and 

 positive inoculations have been made. It 

 clearly belongs to the genus Patellina and ap- 

 pears to be as yet undescribed. 



Strawherry Fruit Rot Due to SpJueronemella 

 Sp. 

 This rot occurs with or separate from the 

 one above described. It differs distinctly in 

 character of spot and is much less rapid in its 

 effects. The spot is not definitely bounded nor 

 is there such evidence of enzyme action as de- 

 scribed above. The affected berry soon becomes 

 completely covered with the pycnidia, which 



are tan-colored to black, distinctly rostrate and 

 are of such peculiar gelatinous texture that 

 berries affected with this disease can be dis- 

 tingTiished by feeling of them. 



The causal fungus has been isolated and 

 positive inoculations have been made. It is a 

 SpluBronemella apparently quite distinct from 

 Zythia fragariae Laib. and seems to be un- 

 described. 



Each of the above fungi has been found re- 

 peatedly on market berries and they are clearly 

 present in suificient frequency to render them 

 of considerable economic significance. 



Strawberry Black Rot Due to Sphceropsis 

 Last year both in Louisiana and in the 

 market here, I frequently found berries which 

 showed a very peculiar blackening or a bronzed 

 appearance. Such berries rotted down dry and 

 eventually shrivelled. Examination showed the 

 presence of abundant dark coarse mycelium 

 similar to that of Sphceropsis malorum and of 

 pycnidia and spores also, as yet indistinguish- 

 able from that fungus. This disease was not 

 nearly so abundant as the two above described 

 and is not of much economic significance. 

 F. L. Stevens 

 Urbana, III., 

 May 3, 1915 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 



THE BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



The 105th regular meeting of the Botanical So- 

 ciety of Washington was held in the Assembly 

 Hall of the Cosmos Club, at 8 p.m., Tuesday, May 

 4, 1915. Thirty-three members and four guests 

 were present. Dr. George E. Lyman was elected 

 to membership. Dr. Camillo Schneider, general 

 secretary of the Dendrologisehen Gesellsohaft of 

 Austria-Hungary, was present as a guest of the 

 society. The scientific program was as follows: 



The Botany of Western, Tunna (China) : De. 



Camillo Schneider. 



Dr. Schneider has just returned from a year's 

 journey in the high mountains of western Yunna. 

 He has carried on in the region of the upper 

 Yangtze investigations in botany, zoology and 

 ethnology. He obtained a great number of colored 

 photographs taken from nature (Lumiere, auto- 

 chromes) of which he exhibited 25 with the Ian- 



