News and Notes 



41 



covery of heteroecism ; he also discusses culture methods and 

 the necessity for such work and then takes up an account of his 

 own experimental work. This work was preceded by five seasons 

 of culture work with the various species of the genus. Out of 

 33 species now recognized in their telial phases 26 have been 

 available for culture work. Successful cultures were secured 

 in 18 out of the 26 species tested. Of these 9 were verifications 

 of life cycles previously known and 9 gave aecial and telial con- 

 nections for the first time. During the course of the work 253 

 individual plant cultures were attempted and 25 species of trial 

 hosts employed, belonging chiefly to the apple family. The 

 pathologic and economic importance of the genus is considered at 

 the close of the first part of the work. 



In the taxonomic study of the genus the author prefers to 

 retain the well-known name Gymnosporangium rather than to 

 adopt the older name Aecidium which has come to be used strictly 

 as a form-genus. The paper contains descriptions of 29 species 

 which have full life cycles known, 4 known only in the telial phase 

 and 7 known only in the aecial phase; a total of 40 species in all. 

 Of these 4 represent new species and 9 are new combinations. 

 The descriptions are preceded by two analytic keys, the one based 

 on the aecia and the other on the telia. There are also two host 

 keys, the first being a key to the hosts harboring the aecial phase 

 and the second a key to the hosts harboring the telial phase. 



The entire paper consists of 89 pages of text, 11 half-tone plates 

 and 36 figures. — F. J. Seaver. 



The Control of the Chestnut Bark Disease. — Haven Metcalf 

 and J. F. Collins treat the subject in farmers bulletin No. 467, 

 issued by the United States Department of Agriculture, October 

 28, 1911. 



The total financial loss from this disease is now estimated at 

 $25,000,000. The only known practical means of controlling 

 the disease in a forest is to locate and destroy the advance in- 

 fections as soon as they appear. Advance infections should be 

 located by trained observers and destroyed by cutting and burn- 

 ing. Chestnut nursery stock should be rigidly inspected and 



