472 



Potato Leaf-Curl. 



[NOV., 



the estate of a German grower near Yeletz in the eastern part 

 of the Orel Government. This grower is stated to have made a 

 practice of saving his own seed, so that this strain has been 

 grown on the same estate for a number of years. The seed 

 itself is, however, indistinguishable from that in common use. 



It is considered that the distinction between this variety and 

 common American red clovers entitles it to a special designa- 

 tion, and it is proposed to call it Trifoliiun praUnse var. foliosum, 

 on account of the general leafiness of the plant and the persis- 

 tence and number of basal leaves produced. Almost complete 

 lack of hairiness is, perhaps, the most striking distinguishing 

 mark of this form in the field, but the variability in amount of 

 hairiness, differing as it does even in American strains from more 

 or less widely-separated sources, makes this an undesirable 

 quality on which to base a name. The plants have also a more 

 upright habit of growth and branch more freely than the 

 American form, and there are other differences of a more 

 purely botanical character. 



In the July number of this Journal ^.n account was given of 

 the results of an investigation, conducted at Kew, as to the 

 perpetuation of " Blight " and " Leaf- 



L^f'CuPl ^^^^ " potatoes by means of perennial 

 mycelium present in the tubers. 

 The details relating to the life-history of " leaf-curl " have 

 now been worked out and will appear in due course. A point 

 of great practical importance in connection with this research is 

 the discovery that " leaf-curl " in potatoes and " black-stripe " in 

 tomatoes are due to the same fungus, Macrosporium solani, 

 Cooke. This discovery not only eliminates one supposed 

 parasitic entity, Macrospormiu tomato, Cookfe, but will also tend 

 to check the spread of the disease, as hitherto it was not 

 known that soil infected by producing a crop of diseased 

 potatoes was capable of infecting tomatoes and vice versa. 



