Natural History Notes and Extracts 407 



shoot of this stole and leave all the others alone ? On closer 

 inspection it was found that the shoots were not barked but 

 simply blanched. Their bark was quite whole and smooth. 

 What could have bleached them ? The riddle was solved by 

 noticing that there were traces of a faggot-stack which had 

 until the last few months covered the whole stole. Through 

 this the shoots had pushed their way to the light, on reaching 

 which their bark had assumed its natural green tint. With 

 their greenness they had also gathered strength, whereas the 

 bleached portions were so weak that they could not support 

 the stems and could be bent in any direction. Some of the 

 shoots instead of being light yellow-white were of a beautiful 

 salmon-pink tint. 



It will be of interest to note whether, now that they are 

 exposed to light, the bleached tracts will form chlorophyle and 

 become green ; also whether they will be able to strengthen 

 themselves. Not only were the bleached portions weaker 

 than the rest, they were actually much smaller, thus indisput- 

 ably proving the value of well-developed bark in the laying 

 on of new wood. Microscopic sections of the bark from the 

 different portions illustrated what might have been expected 

 as regards the absence of chlorophyle in a most instructive 

 manner. 



The Gooseberry Mildew. 



In the Journal of the Board of Agriculture last December, 

 fruit-growers, nurserymen and gardeners are warned of the 

 appearance in more than one place in this country of the 

 dangerous American gooseberry mildew — Sphavotheca mors-uvce. 

 The Board urges the destruction of all affected plants and 

 the spraying with Bordeaux mixture of all others suspected of 

 being infested, and they advise growers to purchase only from 

 dealers who can guarantee that the plants they are selling are 

 of their own growing, and that no case of the disease has ever 

 appeared in their district, and that the said plants have not 

 been near any other gooseberry plants recently brought into 

 the dealer's premises. 

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