ABSTRACTS. 



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Tillandsias. By E. Jahn (Die Gart. p. 291; 22/3/1902; with 

 illustrations). — An interesting article on Epiphytic Tillandsias, heing 

 compared to the northern Lichens, preparing the ground for other plants, 

 mostly Orchids, by deposits of humus. In Europe they are cultivated 

 in hothouses, excepting the North American Tillandsia usneoides, which 

 is quite hardy here. — G. B. 



Tomatos, Forcing Dwarf, under Glass. By F. Wm. Bane 

 (U.S.A. Exp. Stn. Neio Hampshire; 1901).— A variety called 'Dwarf 

 Champion ' averaged twenty-eight fruits per plant, average weight of 

 fruit per plant oh lb., average weight of individual fruits 3 oz. For 

 dwarf Tomatos trained with one stem the best distance seems to be 

 18 inches each way. Night temperature not less than 60°, with 70° or 

 more during the day. — C. H. H. 



Tomato Blight. By N. A. Cobb (Agr. Gaz. N.S.W. p. 410, April 

 1902). — Two additional blights of the Tomato have recently been called 

 into notice in this State. One of these, the Septoria leaf-blight, is of 

 a serious nature, and it had been hoped that it would have been kept out 

 by the Vegetation Diseases Act. It is not possible to decide how it had 

 been introduced. Attention was first called to its existence in New South 

 Wales during the summer of 1901. To the second disease the name 

 Tomato rosette has been applied provisionally. The Tomato leaf- 

 blight (Septoria) has been studied, and found to be comparatively simple 

 in its history and amenable to treatment with fungicides. When the 

 fungus causing the disease occurs on the stalks the spores are not so 

 large as when borne on the leaves, so that it may be assumed that the 

 fungus is less at home on the stalks than on the leaves. Various 

 remedies for the treatment of the disease are given. The rosette of the 

 Tomato disease is of widespread occurrence. It seems only too probable 

 that it may be found wherever Tomatos are grown regularly in any 

 considerable quantity. The losses due to the disease are usually confined 

 to the few isolated cases to be found in most gardens at one time or 

 another, and it is worthy of notice that this disease is much worse in 

 some seasons than in others. The disease is exceedingly easy to describe 

 and recognise. It is characterised above all by the appearance, par- 

 ticularly in the middle of the season, of rosettes of small deformed 

 leaves at the end of the various branches of the half-grown vine. A 

 vine that up to the middle of the season has appeared at any rate to be 

 fairly healthy begins to lose its normal properly shaped leaves, and to 

 produce, more particularly at the ends of the branches, dense tufts of 

 small and deformed leaves, among which may be seen here and there 

 a tiny and also deformed fruit. After the foregoing description of the 

 leading characteristics of the disease it is needless to describe the minor 

 ones, for the reason that up to the present there is no other malady of 

 the Tomato with which the rosette can be confused. There seems to be 

 little or no danger from infection, there being no decisive evidence that 

 the disease spreads from plant to plant. As the cause of the disease still 

 remains in obscurity, no precautions can be recommended that are based 

 on a satisfactory knowledge of the disease. This much can be said, 



