clxxii PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



The specimen sent showed the disease in its typical state. There was 

 also a specimen of an unusually well-developed ascophore. " This 

 disease resembles very closely in many ways Ustulina vulgaris Tul., 

 which grows in our own country, and this, in the light of Mr. Petch's 

 specimen, is doubtless also a pyrenomycetous parasite upon Beech 

 trees." Specimens both in the conidial and ascigerous conditions, 

 gathered this autumn near Narford Hall, King's Lynn, accompanied 

 the notes. " It has hitherto been regarded as a saprophyte, but we 

 must now regard it rather as a parasite on this tree." Mr. Petch 

 says of this disease : " In low-country districts nearly all root disease in 

 Tea appears to be caused by this species of Ustulina. The indications 

 on the dying root are not so clear as those of Poria or Bosellinia, but 

 there is no difficulty in finding them once they have been pointed out. 

 The roots show small black nodules or warts, which probably give rise 

 to underground mycelium, though this has not been clearly established. 

 The mycelium between the wood and the bark spreads in white or 

 yellowish fan-shaped patches, which acquire a black edge when they 

 meet a crack in the bark. Irregular black lines are seen in a cross- 

 section of the root. The fructification appears on the lower part of the 

 stem, emerging through a crack in the bark in the form of a white 

 swollen cushion. This spreads over the surface as a more or less 

 flattened white plate, which finally becomes grey and concentrically 

 zoned. When quite ripe it is a grey, concentrically zoned plate marked 

 with minute black dots ; it lies close to the surface of the stem, but is 

 only attached at one point. The under surface is black, and the whole 

 surface hard and brittle. Two kinds of spores are produced : the first 

 are borne on the outer surface, when the fungus is wholly white ; the 

 second are produced when the fungus is ripe, in minute chambers, whose 

 openings are the black points previously mentioned. On Tea bushes 

 in the field the fructification often takes a different shape, springing 

 from a very thin base to a height of about half an inch and widening 

 out to a flat, circular top. In one instance this disease began on 

 Grevillea stumps, and spread to the adjoining Tea by contact." 



Hybrid Pear and Quince. — Mr. Worsley wrote that he had examined 

 two of the fruits of the hybrid between ' Bergamotte Esperen ' $ and the 

 Portuguese Quince <y ; in the small fruits he had found no perfect seeds, 

 but merely husks. " The skin was smoother than in the female parent, 

 and not so notably spotted with dark brown spots. The colour of the 

 flesh was greenish, and both in this and in the amount of grit it 

 resembled the female parent. The time of ripening was synchronous 

 with that of the Quince, and more than three months earlier than that 

 of the 'Bergamotte Esperen.' The flesh was sweet and exceedingly 

 aromatic, in both of which respects it excelled the female parent and 

 in the former the male. I could discern no trace of either the acidity, 

 roughness, or special flavour of the Quince. . . . The quality of this 

 hybrid entitles it to be placed in the highest rank of dessert fruits if 

 sizable fruits can be obtained after grafting. It is interesting to note 

 that the Pear I have under the name of 1 Conseiller de la Cour ' is ripe 

 at the end of October, that the fruits vary greatly in size and shape, 

 that fertile seeds are rarely if ever borne, that the flesh is yellow and 



