NOTES ANT ABSTRACTS. 



273 



of three quarters of a gallon to each square foot of seed bed. An interval 

 of several days should be left before sowing. Where possible, a method 

 of steaming soil by means of an inverted galvanized iron pan, 6 by 10 

 feet and 6 inches deep, under which steam is admitted, gives very 

 satisfactory results. Considerable steam pressure is necessar}', about 

 80 to 100 pounds, for half an hour after the soil has reached a tem- 

 perature of 212 0 F. This of course can only be done in houses or on 

 seed beds. The diseases of cabbage discussed in this bulletin include 

 eelworm attacks, bacterial and fungoid diseases, the most important 

 being clubroot ; black rot, which dwarfs and sometimes entirely 

 destroys the heads of cabbage, and is generally worse on one side ; 

 black leg or foot rot, which causes the whole plant to wilt ; and 

 damping off of seedlings and many others. 



Some of these diseases are very difficult to control, but this bulletin 

 does much to help the American farmers in recognizing the dangerous 

 diseases of cabbage when they occur. Several plates are given. 



D. M. C. 



Caladium tuberosum, The. By Nestor Seghers (Rev. Hort. Beige, 

 No. 21, p. 329, Nov. 1, 1912 ; No. 22, p. 345, Nov. 15 ; No. 23, p. 362, 

 Dec. 1). — Three articles on the Caladium from its first appearance 

 in the pages of the '* Hortus Kewensis " in 1789, where it was described 

 under the name of Arum bicolor. It had been discovered by Com- 

 merson near Rio de Janeiro in 1767, but was only introduced into 

 England some years later. It was Ventenat, of the Jardin des Plantes 

 in Paris, who first realized that this plant was not a true Arum, and 

 the genus Caladium was established by him, and finally in its 

 present signification by Schott. The dates and names of the producers 

 of some of the later magnificent hybrids are here given. — M . L. H. 



Carnations, Fertilisers for. By David Lumsden (U.S.A. 

 Exp. Sin., New Ramp., Bull. 159; 1912). — A series of incomplete 

 experiments on carnation feeding ; bone meal giving best results on 

 the whole. — G. P. C. 



Catalpa, Polystictus versicolor as a Wound Parasite of. By 



N. E. Stevens (Mycologia, iv. pp. 262-270 ; Sept. 1912 ; 2 plates).— 

 This common fungus is reported as the cause of the only serious disease 

 of Catalpa in the States. It fruits abundantly on the living tree, and 

 rarely on the dead. The fungus in stumps of Catalpa appears not 

 to infect the young vigorous shoots from the base of the stump very 

 readily until after their most rapid growth has ceased. — F. J. C. 



Catalpa, The Hardy. By Chas. A. Scott (U.S.A. Exp. Sin., 

 Kansas, Circ. 20). — This is the only species worth planting as a 

 timber-producing tree, and is usually worked on a sixteen or eighteen 

 years' rotation. Seasoning must be attended to before the timber is 



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