xliv PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



fruit is of the dwarf species, Musa Cavendishii. They realise 4s. in 

 England, the price at home of a bunch being Is. They are packed in 

 paper and cotton-wool, with the soft part of the leaves. The ship's hold 

 being well ventilated, the moisture evaporates, and the fruit is thus kept 

 cool and fresh. Immense quantities of large Onions are also grown ; 

 84,000Z. worth were sent in a few weeks to New York. Cotton is also 

 again being cultivated, the Barbados realising the highest prices. 



Boot Fungi in Orchards. — Dr. Cooke, V.M.H., reported : — " The 

 specimens sent were pieces of bark of an Apple-tree, about a foot in 

 diameter, from an orchard near Bristol. Several trees are reported to be 

 dying away. The disease spreads upwards from the roots and gradually 

 girdles the tree. The interior of the bark was permeated with a dense 

 white mycelium, which ultimately becomes firm like a coating of some 

 Corticium, appropriating and consuming the tissues. This is an ordinary 

 form of the development of root fungi, which normally proceed in the first 

 instance from rotten stumps or decayed wood buried in the soil. In 

 most cases this mycelium is that of some Agaric, such as Pholiota sqzoarrosa, 

 which may often be seen growing in large clusters at the base of Apple- 

 trees in orchards. The trees which are attacked in this manner are bound 

 to be destroyed, and there is no known method of saving them. Full 

 particulars will be found in Journ. R.H.S. xxviii. p. 32. If the soil be 

 turned up around the infected trees, it will be found to be permeated with 

 the threads of white mycelium, which attacks the roots, and soon creeps 

 upwards between the bark and the wood, and kills the tree. In cases 

 where the roots are only slightly attacked they may be cleaned and pruned, 

 and then well washed with some fungicide. Ordinarily some immediate 

 and drastic measures must be adopted, or it will spread through the 

 orchard. Infected trees not wholly destroyed should be trenched round, 

 and thus cut off from healthy trees. The soil cast up must be sterilised, 

 and all stumps or decayed wood found in the soil must be dug up and 

 destroyed. If one corner of an orchard is found to contain infected trees, 

 it should be isolated and cut off by deep trenches from the rest of the 

 orchard. Doubtless, in the first instance, the mischief has been caused 

 by leaving dead stumps in the ground when the trees have been planted, 

 or the roots of dead trees have not been thoroughly got out, but left to rot 

 in the ground. For the past fifty years I myself, and before me the Rev. 

 M. J. Berkeley, have been constantly warning fruit-growers against this 

 insidious pest, which may be working underground in the soil for many 

 years before its effects are felt on well-established trees. 



Growers of fruit should never permit the capped fungi, or ' Toadstools ' 

 as they are called, to flourish in orchards ; and by all means should be 

 suspicious of any threads of white mycelium which may be discovered in 

 turning over the soil. 



Diseased Tomatos. — Plants received from Berwick- on-Tweed were 

 examined by Dr. Cooke, who observes : — " The symptoms appear to be 

 those of the 4 Tomato Wilt,' a kind of bacteriosis to which Potatos are 

 also liable. See Journ. R.H.S. xxvii. p. 819. Diseased plants should be 

 removed, as they are liable to infect others. There should afterwards 

 be a change of crops on the ground. Nothing will cure the infected 

 plants." 



