423, 
DXC.—SLIME-FLUX. 
An obscure disease, which appears to be I destruetive to 
oung fruit-trees, has been recen tly the subject of careful 
investigation at Kew. Originally described by Ludwig in 1888, 
it is briefly diseussed in Tubeuf and Smith's Diseases p? Plants 
(1897), who express some doubt as to the organism causing the 
disease and as to its fatal character. The following account, 
owever, seems to leave little room for doubt in the matter 
REPORT on a diseased plum tree sent to Kew for examination 
by , Spencer Pickering, F.R.S. Maucilage-flux; Schleimfluss, or 
L’Ecoulement des Arbres fruitiers. 
The colourless mucilage escaping from injured portions of 
diseased plants contains a Schizom eee Came cate arie yi 0- 
h 
Corda), the subglobose cells of which float i in the hs «ins ase 
and impart to it a brown colour. Inoculations with pure cultures 
of both these organisms demonstrate conclusively the following 
points : — 
(1.) The Micrococcus is alone capable of emu fermentation 
in the living eid ba the host-plant, and must, therefore, be 
considered as the e agent in causing disease. 
(2.) The Mieroc iade us is not able to set up a disease when placed 
on uninjured bark, however young, but does so readily and 
constantly when placed on a wounded surface of wood or bark. 
e disease is quite as readily imparted to apple trees as to 
plum tree 
Shortly after i inoculation the diseased portions of wood assume 
a reddish-bro colour, and finally become quite soft and dis- 
organised, At later stage scattered patches of bark Aa desthéyod 
from within, forming suppurating wounds through which the 
mucilage, formed during fermentation of the tissues, oozes to the 
surfac 
EU wounds present very suitable starting-points for the 
growth of various wound-fungi, as Polyporus, Nectria, ete. 
The mucilage, charged with Micrococcus and Tor ula, situated 
th 
place at the surface of two pruned branches, which presumably 
had not been properly protected by the application of tar to the 
cut surfaces. 
G. M. 
August 12, 1897. 
DXCI.—MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 
MR. RICHARD MENTZEL, formerly a UAM of the gardening 
staff of the Royal Gardens, has been appointed manager of the 
rubber Plenum of Mr. Wolf Carlis, at Vasu. South 
African Republic 
16390 B 
