274 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



put in use, it being principally converted into fencing posts. As a 

 commercial undertaking Catalpa growing has in the States proved 

 a good financial investment. — A. D. W. 



Chestnut and Oak, Large Leaf Spot of. By A. H. Graves 

 (Mycologia, iv. pp. 170-174 ; July 1912 ; 1 plate). — Castanea dentata 

 and Quercus rubra were both affected by a leaf spot disease forming 

 small pale spots with a darker margin, rather variable in colour, on 

 otherwise healthy leaves. Concentric rings of growth appear and 

 finally the spots become much larger, up to about 2 inches in diameter 

 and stretching across the entire width of the leaf. The fungus was 

 isolated and proves to be Monochaetia Desmazierii. Spraying where 

 individual trees are attacked is recommended, but raking up and 

 burning fallen foliage is also a measure likely to prove useful. — F. J. C. 



Chestnut Bark Disease, The Control of. By Haven Metcalf and J. 

 Franklin Collins. (U.S.A. Dep. Agr., Farmers' Bull. 467). — The 

 bark disease of true chestnuts belonging to the genus Castanea 

 is due to an ascomycetous fungus, Diaporthe parasitica. It is causing 

 very considerable damage to chestnuts in the United States, and is 

 believed to have been imported from Japan. The fungus is a wound 

 parasite, lives in the bark, and very soon kills the tree by girdling the 

 trunk or branches where infection occurs. 



The summer spores are extruded from orange-yellow or reddish- 

 brown pustules, in the form of long, irregularly twisted strings or 

 " horns," bright yellow to greenish-yellow in colour. The pustules 

 occur on the dead, discoloured, sunken areas on the bark. After 

 the trunks have been girdled, the fungus grows extensively in 

 the bark and the ascus or winter stage is formed, consisting also of 

 reddish-brown pustules. Sprouts and suckers develop below the 

 diseased areas, and form a very characteristic symptom. 



No sprays seem to be of any avail. The disease can only be con- 

 trolled by cutting down and burning badly diseased trees and cutting 

 out diseased areas in slightly affected trees, by quarantine and elimina- 

 tion, and by locating advance infections by careful examination of 

 trees. 



The timber which does not seem to be affected of diseased trees 

 can be used, but all bark must be carefully burned, to prevent the 

 spread of the disease. — D. M. C. 



Chestnut Blight. By P. Spaulding (Mycologia, iv. pp. 148-149 ; 



May 1912). — This disease has spread rapidly during the past three 

 years so as to be beyond hope of control in parts of Connecticut. 

 The imperative need for immediately controUing the disease when 

 it first appears is pointed out, and the fact that the characteristic 

 symptoms of the " blight " are due to the girdling of the trunk by the 

 fungus is pointed out. — F. J. C. 



