Report on Botany. 



201 



tumor just above. It certainly looks, from the frequency 

 of this occurrence, very much as if the mycelium, having 

 fulfilled its mission to the old excrescence in waiting for 

 and aiding in the full development of the perithecia, then 

 leaves these to produce their spores without further aid, 

 and, with an industry worthy of a better cause, pushes its 

 way down the branch through the soft tissues of the bark 

 and exterior sap wood to lay the foundation of a new 

 colony. 



3d. The cutting may be done at the proper time and done 

 thoroughly, and yet the trees may continue to be attacked by 

 this wretched malady. An indolent neighbor may neglect 

 to prune his trees and thereby raise successive crops of 

 spores to be wafted by the winds to the trees of his more 

 careful and diligent townsmen. Or there may be wild 

 cherry and plum trees in the neighboring copses or groves 

 which are perpetuating the fungus and sending out each 

 spring a shower of spores to fall upon the cultivated fruit 

 trees of the vicinity. Hence, if we would overcome this 

 enemy, there must be a combined and unanimous effort 

 against him, and skirmishers must be sent out to dislodge him 

 from the surrounding hills, woods and waste places. I see 

 no reason why united and well directed efforts in this 

 direction may not rid us of this miserable pest. 



Having thus dwelt at some length on this subject, we will 

 briefly notice one or two inferences which we find in the 

 articles of the Practical Entomologist from which we have 

 quoted. We would not even notice these did we not 

 believe them erroneous and fraught with mischief. It 

 is stated that " about the last of July or the first week in 

 August, there grows from each fungus on the surface of the 

 black knot a little cylindrical filament about one eighth 

 of an inch long, which no doubt bears the seed or spores, 

 as they are technically termed, of the fungus, and that these 



Trans. vii.~] . 26 



