322 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, 
laboratories should be set up in various centres in Great Britain, these 
being linked up with the main central establishment at Kew. The 
variations of our soil and climate demand that stations should be 
distributed according to special local requirements. Each district 
creates its own problems ; for instance, it would be impossible to 
investigate thoroughly a disease of our Northumberland crops in the 
South or West of England, and similarly no good results might be ex- 
pected to follow from an attempt to investigate Hop or fruit diseases 
in the North of England. Each station should be superintended by a 
thoroughly qualified botanist, whose equipment, I may repeat, should 
be such as to enable him to deal with the important pathological 
problems involving a knowledge of bio-chemistry and bio-physics. 
In some districts, such as Cambridge, Wye, &c, centres for patho- 
logical work are already established and valuable results have been 
obtained, but to cope with the manifold questions which present 
themselves many more investigators are wanted. 
The provision made for Economic Mycology under the Board of 
Technical Instruction for Ireland, with its section for Seeds and Plant- 
disease, has been productive of great results. 
Seed-testing for germination and purity might with advantage 
be extended to the detection of harmful fungus spores, with advice 
as to their treatment, and certain seed firms might well undertake 
the " pickling " processes which are known to be effective means of 
dealing with infected seeds. 
It is not my purpose to enter into detailed experiments as to the 
benefit of " spraying/' Numerous experiments testify to the valuable 
results obtained by spraying with fungicides in certain classes of 
diseases, and they have shown how the yield of Potatos, Apples, Hops, 
&c, can be increased by this means. The difficulties in adopting 
this method, however, are great, and it is only applicable to certain 
cases of parasitism where the parasite or its spore-producing hypha is 
external to the host-plant. 
I should like to point out that at the present time there is no 
catalogue of British fungi similar to the London Catalogue of Flowering 
Plants. The British Mycological Society has had this matter in view, 
and through the assiduity of Mr. J. Ramsbottom a list of the Uredi- 
nales, Discomycetes, and Phycomycetes has now been published. The 
Society has received little support from botanists, and even from 
those who are specially interested in fungi from a technical point of 
view. A greater support to this Society would enable the Trans- 
actions to be extended and possibly to develop into a much-needed 
Mycological Journal, of which there is at present no special publication 
in this country. 
The International Society for Plant Pathology exists, and should 
be a means of strengthening our hands by an interchange of ideas 
with workers in other countries and of gaining a greater knowledge 
of their activities. 
In addition to the various pathological centres I have suggested, 
