742 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



the ripening of the stigma, the weather, the sun, and the amount of 

 moisture in the air. The author prefers to pollinate towards evening, 

 after the greatest heat is over, and the flower has passed the first day of 

 its life. The stigma is then mature, and fertilisation is almost always 

 guaranteed. Pollination must be performed with very fine brushes, 

 which are to be carried in glass or porcelain cases, not in those of wood 

 or metal. He has also succeeded in the fertilisation of the sub-genus 

 Codocrinum x Stcnaster, e.g., C. jemense x C. pedunculatam. The 

 seeds appear like ready-formed bulbils, and germinate of their own accord 

 on falling to the ground, even under the most burning sun. The hardly 

 ripe seeds are placed at once in small pots and treated as if they were 

 bulbils. They germinate in a few weeks, spend the first winter under 

 glass, and in the following spring are placed in the open ground, where 

 they reach during the first year of their life, if treated with plenty of 

 manure and water, a considerable development, and flower profusely in 

 the third, fourth, or at latest in the fifth year. — W. C. W. 



Cucumber and Melon Leaf-blotch [Cercosporamelonis, Cke.). Anon. 

 (Jour. Bd. Agr. vol. ix, pp. 196-198, pi. iv.). — " The disease under con- 

 sideration can only assume the proportion of a destructive epidemic when 

 attacking plants grown under glass, and when a high temperature and an 

 excess of moisture are present. Such conditions, accompanied by a 

 deficiency of light, result in the production of 1 soft ' foliage, and it is only 

 such foliage that the fungus can attack. Experiments carried out at 

 Kew prove that the fungus cannot develop under ' lights ' or in the open 

 air. Plants that are badly diseased, if removed to the open air, produce 

 new foliage which remains perfectly healthy. 



" The disease is entirely an artificial creation, rendered possible by the 

 rushing mode of cultivation." 



The preventive measures given are as follows : — If the foliage is fairly 

 hard, the disease cannot assume the dimensions of an epidemic, and even 

 if it appears it can be kept well in hand by spraying. To accomplish this 

 end a fair supply of air should be admitted, so that the atmosphere is not 

 constantly saturated with moisture. It is wise to spray in anticipation of 

 the disease, using a solution of potassium sulphide — two ounces to three 

 gallons of water, adding two ounces of soft soap. 



It is very important that the under sides of the leaves be thoroughly 

 wetted with the solution. 



If the disease is present the soil should be drenched with the solution. 



Diseased leaves should be removed and burnt before they decay and 

 fall to the ground. 



After a diseassd crop has been removed, the soil should be thoroughly 

 drenched with a solution of " Jeyes' Fluid," in the proportion of an ounce 

 to a gallon of water. 



Copies of this valuable paper may be obtained free on application to 

 the Secretary, the Board of Agriculture. 4 Whitehall Place, London, S.W. 



B. N. 



Currant Rust, Observations on. By P. Hennings (Zeit.f. Bflanz. 

 xii. 1902, pp. 129-132). — Cronarthim ribicola, Dietr., was observed on 



