clxvi PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Gooseberry -mildciu. — Dr. C. B. Plowright sent shoots of Gooseberry 

 badly attacked by the mildew Microsphaera Grossulariae, the well- 

 known European " Gooseberry-mildew," with the following note : " These 

 shoots were gathered from a garden which a friend of mine planted some 

 years ago with fruit trees and Gooseberry bushes. The latter became 

 affected with a mildew so badly that they had to be destroyed because 

 they bore no fruit ; and if by any chance they did so it never ripened. 

 When the American fungus appeared in this county (Norfolk) one 

 naturally suspected it had been the cause. It so happened that a score 

 or two bushes had been left in the garden ; for although they never 

 ripened fruit, yet they bore a sufficient quantity to pay for gathering 

 whilst still green. On specimens of the bushes examined during last 

 winter no traces of the winter state of Sphaerothcca mors uvae were to 

 be found, nor is it present now. The moral is : Do not despise old 

 enemies. Here is an instance in which hundreds of young bushes in 

 the fruit-bearing stage were destroyed because they were affected by a 

 fungus with which I was acquainted as a boy. One is inclined to ask, 

 Would it not have paid to have sprayed them ? " 



Change of Colour in Germinating Acorns. — Dr. Plowright also sent 

 specimens illustrating the following observations : " The colour which 

 germinating Acorns often assume is frequently considerable. The 

 specimens sent herewith were gathered near King's Lynn in the spring 

 of the present year. A deep reddish tint more than usually distinct 

 was the cause of their being examined more carefully, when it was seen 

 that not only was the external surface coloured red, but that in some places 

 distinct yellow and greenish shades were observable. The coloration 

 is external, and is possibly due to some form of oxidisation." The 

 coloration referred to was still very distinct, showing that it is persistent 

 for many months. 



British Dye-plants.— ~Dz. Plowright also sent skeins of worsted dyed 

 with British wild plants : (1) Bore a delicate shade of light green 

 produced from the young flower-heads of Phragmites communis, the 

 common Reed, mordanted with alum. Previous experiments with 

 other flower-heads gave a much darker colour. (2) Was of a dark 

 green colour (olive), the result of treatment with iron sulphate following 

 the treatment of No. h (3) Bidcns tripartita is not mentioned by 

 Linnaeus as a dye-plant, but it gives a yellow more approaching orange 

 than that given by other British dye-plants. (4) Chrysanthemum 

 segetum gives a yellow more like that of other dye-plants, but it is not 

 noted by Linnaeus as a fast colour. 



Malformed Inflorescence. — An interesting specimen of Sempervivnm 

 spinulosum came from the Hon. Walter Rothschild, in which the 

 inflorescence bore only a few flowers, and was crowned by a rosette 

 of foliage leaves quite like the rosettes at the base of the plant. The 

 lower leaves of the rosette bore flower-buds in their axils. 



