374 CONNECTICUT: EXPERIMENT STATION REPORT, IQI2. 
apparently has spread outward with the development of seem- 
ingly new infections. This apparent wave of progress, however, 
is in. part due to a corresponding wave of interest-on the part 
of the people to locate a disease so generally discussed. It is 
quite doubtful whether’ the disease was observed in most of 
the localities as soon as it made its appearance there, but 
rather our experience has been that it was ustally discovered 
in a place-when someone became interested enough to search 
for it. 
Hosts, Resistance, etc. While the blight was first found on 
our native chestnut, Castanea dentata, and most of the damage 
has been done to this species, it was soon determined that other 
species of Castanea were more or. less susceptible to the disease. 
Murrill (48, p. 27) in 1908 called attention to these hosts, as 
follows: “It is now certain that the chestnut disease attacks 
all species of Castanea, both native and cultivated, that occur 
in this region, namely, Castanea dentata, the common native 
chestnut, C. crenata, the Japanese chestnut, and C, pumila, the 
chinquapin, found native from New Jersey to Florida.” The 
European chestnut, Castanea sativa, though not mentioned by 
Murrill, is now known to be about as susceptible to the disease 
as our native species. At first certain varieties of this, as the 
Paragon, were thought to be more or less immune, but sub- 
sequent observation has not shown any that possessed marked 
resistance. ~ 
Concerning the infection of the Japanese chestnut, Murrill 
said: “This discovery is especially timely because of the fact 
that the Japanese chestnut has been under observation else- 
where in the vicinity of affected native trees, and has been 
considered immune, so that it has been mentioned as a 
desirable substitute for the native tree in some of our parks.” 
Metcalf also had noticed this apparent resistance of the Japanese 
chestnut, and published a short bulletin (33) in February, 1908, 
in which he says: “Observations made by the writer the past 
year indicate that all varieties and species of the genus Castanea 
are subject to the disease except the Japanese varieties (Castanea 
crenata Sieb. & Zucc.). All of the latter that have been observed 
in the field or tested by inoculation have been found immune. 
This fact can hardly fail to be of fundamental importance to 
the future of chestnut culture. Although the nuts are distinctly 
