20 



BITTER PIT INVESTIGATION. 



that they may contribute to the extension of the brown patches by their subsequent decay, especially 

 under storage conditions, and this view receives support from the proved fact that, when apples are 

 kept at a low temperature, such as 30-32° F., the development of Bitter Pit is retarded. 



From the mode of origin of these filamentous hair-like structures, it is not surprising that 

 the same appearances have been met with in other plants as well as the apple. Sorauer (85) found 

 them, for instance, clothing interior cavities in turnip-tops and in the leaf parenchyma of " layered " 

 oat-plants. 



As these filaments are found so frequently accompanying brown spots in the tissues and 

 ramifying luxuriantly in their vicinity, they might easily be mistaken for the hyphae of a fungus, 

 and I have no doubt but the discovery of fungi in some instances as the cause of the " spotting" has 

 been due to the appearance presented by these branching hypha-like structures (Fig. 536). 



VARIETIES WITH " WOOLLY STRIPE." 



A number of different varieties were carefully examined for " Woolly Stripe," to see how 

 far it was associated with Bitter Pit, but, while it was beautifully developed in Cleopatra (Fig. 51), 

 there were other badly pitted varieties in which it did not occur. 



It was found on the inner face of the seed-vessels in the following varieties : — 



Annie Elizabeth. Lady Henniker. 



Baldwin. Lane's Prince Albert. 



Battalion. Munroe's Favorite or Dunn's Seedling. 



Cleopatra. Rhode Island Greening. 



Dillington Beauty. Rome Beauty. 



Esopus Spitzenberg. Rymer. 



Five Crown. Stark. 



Hartington Codlin. Stewart's Seedling. 



IX. — APPEAEANCES MISTAKEN FOR BITTER PIT. 



There are a number of fruit-spots which may be variously caused, and which have a 

 superficial resemblance to Bitter Pit, but, from the symptoms already given, a careful observer 

 should be able to discriminate between this disease and the various appearances likely to be mistaken 

 for it. 



There are certain associated diseases which are sometimes confounded with it, but these will 

 be dealt with under a separate heading. 



A few of those appearances which have actually been brought under my notice as cases of 

 Bitter Pit will now be considered. 



HAIL MARKS. 



At the Burnley Gardens, specimens of a young seedling apple known as Borrowdale were 

 brought under my notice as being "pitted." This variety is one of the largest and earliest apples 

 grown there, and, since it is rather subject to Bitter Pit, the depressions on the surface were 

 considered suspicious. 



It was on the 25th October, 1911, when the apples were about the size of walnuts, that these 

 markings were first observed, and the previous afternoon there had been a severe hailstorm at the 

 Gardens. The pits or depressions were on the coloured and exposed surface of the fruit, and varied 

 in size from a pin head to about one-eighth of an inch in diameter. They were generally irregularly 



