246 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



M. Nomblot, in a paper on this subject, mentions first the three ways 

 in which the new varieties which are placed on the market are obtained : 

 (1) By chance seedhngs; (2) by sowings made without prehminary 

 fertihzation; (3) by sowings made from seeds which have been fertihzed 

 on a more or less settled plan. Once raised, the seedlings are not 

 selected sufficiently with a view to their individual healthiness, and the 

 methods of cultivation to which they are subjected are not always 

 calculated to produce a good constitution in the specimens. 



Further, in perpetuating good varieties, either by graft or cutting, 

 every available shoot is liable to be made use of, whether thoroughly 

 healthy or not. 



M. Nomblot, in a second paper (p. 680, Nov. 1909), gives directions 

 for the raising of young fruit trees from seed and for the treatment 

 best calculated to produce healthy stock. — M, L. H. 



Fruit Trees, Young-, Advantage of Importing- from Dif- 

 ferent Soil and Climate {Jour. Soc. Nat, Hort. Fr. Nov. 1909, 

 p. 680). — Opinion on this subject is still divided, but the debate 

 here recorded ended with the conclusions that, if it is not actually 

 proved to be an advantage to plant trees which have been raised 

 in a different soil and climate, at all events the acclimatization of such 

 trees need present no difficulties, and, in any case, it is better to 

 attempt it than to go on reproducing a variety indefinitely under the 

 same uniform conditions. — M. L. H. 



Fung-i, Gravity and the Growth of {Bot. Gaz. vol. xlviii. 

 December 1909, pp. 414-426; with 13 figs.).~Miss Stella G. Streeter 

 found that when young and vigorously growing toadstools {Amanita 

 phalloides) are placed horizontally the stipe bends upwards and carries 

 the pileus up to and beyond the horizontal position. Then, by a subse- 

 quent change in growth-direction, the horizontal position is obtained. 

 The sensitive zone is situated near the tip of the stipe, and the zone of 

 most rapid elongation is always just below the pileus. The reaction 

 follows sometimes after less than a minute's stimulation, and the 

 latent period varied from 40 to 60 minutes. — G. F. S.-E. 



Fung-icides, Copper. By the Duke of Bedford, K.G., and Spencer 

 U. Pickering, F.K.S. {Wohurn, Eleventh Report, 1910).— As the 

 fungus and the host plant upon which it lives are both vegetable 

 organisms built up of similar cells, they will probably be affected in the 

 same way by any deleterious substance applied to them (p. 3), and the 

 authors of this report state that " no direct fungicidal action is possible 

 without the risk, and, indeed, almost the certainty, of some damage to the 

 plant." " The rate at which insoluble copper is rendered soluble, and 

 the strength of the solution existing at any time in the form of droplets 

 on the leaves, must always be unknown quantities, which will vary with 

 the varying atmospheric conditions at the time " (p. 9). Damp, muggy 

 weather, mainly by causing a rapid liberation of soluble copper, is the 

 most conducive to injury (p. 101), which consists of the destruction of 

 protoplasm. 



