Notes and Brief Articles 



341 



destructive early in the season, that is, on young plants. It begins 

 in the hothouse and continues in the open beds. It destroys the 

 buds, forms large unsightly spots on the leaves and ruins the blos- 

 som clusters by blighting the flower buds or by decaying the stalk. 

 No means of control has yet been worked out. 



I received from Dr. Overholts last August a fresh specimen of 

 Porta semitincta which was colored a beautiful, delicate lilac 

 (Ulacinus) on the margin for a centimeter or more, while the 

 hymenium was entirely white or with dirty pale-yellowish-white 

 stains. The following note accompanied the specimens : 



" I am sending you under separate cover a fresh specimen of 

 Poria semitincta Peck. I do not know how familiar you may be 

 with the fresh coloration in good specimens of this species, and it 

 is worth seeing. The color gradually fades in herbarium speci- 

 mens, and a collection of October, 1919, with colors as in this 

 specimen has now almost faded out. This is my fourth collection, 

 and I have had it twice from correspondents.' 



An excellent professional paper of one hundred pages on 

 " Damping-ofT in Forest Nurseries," by Carl Hartley, appeared 

 last June as Bulletin 934 of the U. S. Department of Agriculture. 

 Damping-off in nurseries is caused mainly by seedling parasites 

 which are not specialized as to host ; Pytkium Debaryanum and 

 Corticium vagum are probably the most important of these. The 

 most serious losses in conifers are ordinarily from the root-rot 

 type of damping-off, occurring soon after the seedlings appear 

 above ground and while the hypocotyls are still soft. The best 

 control method appears to be the disinfectant treatment of the seed- 

 bed soil before or immediately after the seed is sown. Sulphuric 

 acid has been found very useful for conifers, as they are appar- 

 ently especially tolerant of acid treatment. Broad-leaved tree seed- 

 lings rarely suffer seriously from the attacks of damping-off fungi. 



The British Mycological Society is interested in a collection of 

 type cultures to be assembled and maintained at the Lister Insti- 

 tute, Chelsea Gardens, London. It is proposed to collect and 



