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JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Counted. They were so very few that it would seem the wmd cannot be 

 rehed upon to transfer the pollen, and to confirm this the blossoms of a 

 whole tree were emasculated and the petals were also removed. 

 During the whole time that the pistils were receptive only eight bees 

 visited the tree, while twice . that number were seen in half an hour to 

 visit a tree in full bloom twenty feet away. Of 1500 blooms emas- 

 culated only five set fruit. — E. B. 



Bees in an Orchard House. By E. Lamlinet (Jour. Soc. Nat. 

 Hort. Fr. ; Ser. 4 ; vol. xi. ; August 1910; p. 532). — A hive of bees was 

 brought into an orchard house as soon as the fruit trees began to bloom. 

 The warmth of the house soon brought cut the bees, and eventually 

 their activities were quite effectual in fertilizing the pears, apples, 

 cherries, goosel)erries, and above all the plums in the house. For some 

 reason they disliked, and after a first taste quite avoided, the peach 

 bloom. The reason for this dislike is to be made the subject of future 

 investigation. The hive must be the subject of extra care, as it will 

 leave the house weakened by the loss of probably all the workers who 

 found their way outside during the ventilation of the house, and it 

 must be carried outside again in fine warm weather so that the bees 

 may not suffer from the sudden change of temperature. — M. L. H. 



Beets, The Curly-Top of. By H. B. Shaw {U.S.A. Dep. Agr., 

 Bur. PI. Ind., Bull. 181; July 1910). — The name of curly-top of beet 

 practically describes the symptoms. The author considers the disease 

 to be primarily due to the attacks of the beet leaf hopper, Eutettix 

 tenella. The veins and leaves become distorted, excrescences form on 

 the veins, the petioles remain short, and there is an abnormal growth of 

 small imperfectly formed leaves. The foliage is dark, dull green, quite 

 brittle, and leathery in texture. In some cases the outer leaves turn 

 yellow, then the inner whorls in succession until the whole plant dies. 

 The root throws out dense masses of rootlets, and itself becomes tough 

 and leathery. The fibro-vascular bundles become darkened throughout 

 the entire length of the root. 



Viarious other theories have been put forward to account for curly- 

 top such as bacteria, fungi, bad cultural conditions, the weather, &c., 

 and there seems to be no doubt that any check in the growth of the beet 

 in the eariy stages renders the plant less resistant to tlie attack of 

 Eutettix tenella, and weather may also influence the severity of the 

 attack. The softening and decay of the tissues of the root, which so 

 often go with attacks of ciirly-top, the author considers to be directly 

 due to the fungus Phoma betae, and not to the leaf-hopper. 



Ourly-top is a serious menace to the production of beet seed and 

 the culture of beet for sugar in the United States. It is useless to store 

 roots of badly attacked beets for growing a second year for seed. They 

 are either unable to develop any seed stem at all, or else they have 

 only sufficient vitality left to reach the flowering stage (although badly 

 stunted and distorted) and will set a small quantity of seed. No 

 variety is immune. 



