CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE WISLEY LABORATORY. 



119 



Twenty years have thus elapsed since the first recognition of the 

 disease, and during this time it has spread into many of the countries 

 where celery is cultivated. Its occurrence and distribution in England 

 are noted below. 



A curious and possibly significant fact is that there are apparently 

 no records whatever of the fungus attacking wild plants. The celery 

 occurs wild in miarshes over a large area in Europe, North Africa, W. 

 Asia and N.W. India, but the disease seems to have been spread with 

 cultivated celery and not from the wild plants to cultivated ones, as so 

 many fungi have done. 



Synonymy of the Fungus on Celery. — The synonymy of the variety 

 has been fully dealt with by Klebahn,* and it will be sufficient to 

 note the following : — 



Septoria -petroselini var. apii Briosi et Cavara (1891). 



Septoria Apii Eostrup. 



Phlyctaena Magnusiana (All.) Bresadola, in Allescher et Schnabl, 

 Fungi havarici, No. 188 (1891). 

 Rhaldospora nehulosa. 



Septoria apiicola Spegazzini, Fungi Fuegiana (on Apium austral<B). 



Occurrence of the disease in the British Isles. — The funguc is 

 referred to in several books dealing with diseases of plants caused by 

 fungi published in this countiy, e.g. Mas see! : " Septoria petroselini, 

 Desm. var. apii B. & C, causes celery leaves to become brown and 

 studded with small black dots over the entire surface ' ' ; and Cooke I : 

 " The leaves of the parsley and sometimes of the celery are liable to 

 become spotted with this disease." 



Neither of these authors suggest that the disease is known in Britain 

 up to the time of publication of their respective books, nor do Tubeuf 

 and Smith § record it as British. 



The first definite record of it in England appears to be in' this 

 JouENAL-ll A plant of diseased celery was sent from Colyton, S. 

 Devon, for the inspection of the Scientific Committee on Nov. 6, 1906, 

 which on examination proved to be attacked by this fungus. A diseased 

 plant had also been sent to the Committee in Sept. 1902 and reported 

 upon by Dr. Cooke, but no locality was given. Since 1906 each year 

 has brought specimens in increasing numbers, and now they have been 

 received from each one of the southern and most of the eastern 

 counties of England. The next definite mention is in the Journal of 

 the Board of Agriculture, vol. xiv. p. 481, where specimens from 

 Welwyn, Herts, are referred to; in the same Journal, vol. xv. p. 604, 



" Cette espec© est frequente sur les feuilles du Persil et du Celeri (var. Apii 

 Br. et Cav.) ; ses degats sont analogues a ceux que produit le Cercospora Apii." 



* Klebahn, I.e. See also Sorauer, Jahreshericht 1901 des Sorderausschusses 

 fiir PflanzenscJiutz, 133. 



t Massee, G., Text-hook of Plant Diseases, Ed. I. (1899), p. 270. 



t Cooke, M. C, " Pests of Garden Vegetables," Journal li.H.S. xxvii. (1903), 

 p. 811. 



§ Tubeuf and Smith, Diseases of Plants induced hy Cryjjtogamic Parasites 

 (1897), p. 477. 



II Chittenden, F. J., Journal R.H.S. xxxii. (1907), p. xcii. 



