Sept. 1896.] ROTTENNESS OF TURNIPS AND SWEDES. 



129 



leaves infecting the living plants; Eidam, that it attacks- 

 cabbages ; Klein and Sorokin, the male inflorescences of 

 juniper, Thuja, and yew; Tubeuf and Behrens, Pseudotsuga 

 Douglasii ; Behrens, the hemp ; Muller-Thurgau, fruits, espe- 

 cially pears ; Ward, that a " species " of Botrytis caused 

 an epidemic upon lilies ; it also attacks cucumbers, melons, 

 kidney-beans, dahlias, artichokes, onions, &c. The Peziza- 

 stage of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum (which is said to have no 

 Botrytis-st&ge) also causes considerable destruction among 

 turnips, carrots, beet, and chicory roots, as described by Coemans 

 and de Bary^ and the latter author has shown how this fungus 

 attacks seedlings, especially those of Petunia and Zinnia. It is 

 therefore of the utmost importance that the number of conidia — 

 or ascospores — set free in the spring should be reduced to the 

 smallest possible limit, and no better means could be devised 

 than by making a bonfire of all refuse within range. 



Again, too much care cannot be bestowed upon the pits ; the 

 damp, steamy atmosphere is, as has been said before, one of 

 the conditions most favourable to fungoid growth, and there is 

 every reason to believe that proper ventilation and more effective 

 drainage would materially lessen the loss caused by this pest. 

 The closer the roots are packed together the greater is the 

 chance of their decay, and an alleviation of the mischief might, 

 perhaps, be effected by placing layers of dry straw between the 

 layers of roots. 



The greatest vigilance should be displayed to prevent any 

 unsound roots being stored with the healthy ones, and, further, 

 care should be exercised to leave the minimum amount of cut 

 surface when the roots are pulled and prepared for store, a dry 

 day being preferably selected for this purpose. 



One commonly finds that turnip or swede tops, and sometimes 

 potato-haulms, are placed on the roof of the pits ; these I have 

 often found infected upon the pits and producing their crop 

 of conidia. It is a practice which cannot be too strongly 

 condemned. 



It would be unsuitable here to enter upon the vexed question 

 of nomenclature ; suffice it to say that as far as I have been 

 able to determine all the fungi described here, found upon the 

 swedes in the pits, on the dead and decaying leaves, and upon 

 the potato-haulms, are the same, namely, Botrytis cinerea, a 

 fungus which is acknowledged to be the conidial stage of 

 Sclerotinia (Peziza) fuckeliana, but the peziza-stage never 

 having appeared, it is impossible to decide whether we have 

 the conidial form of S. fuckeliana or one which very closely 

 resembles it, The Botrytis in question appears to be identical 

 with that described by Kissling, which produced the epidemic 

 upon Gentians, and it may be that this Botrytis has lost its peziza- 

 stage and is gradually degrading to a condition similar to the 

 one described by Marshall Ward, in which the sclerotium-stage 

 is wanting ; or the conditions under which it grows may be 

 favourable to the formation of conidia but not to a Peziza. Our 



