14 BULLETIN 1331, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
culture it has not been encountered in serious form. It is caused by 
a Botrytis, the same mold or one closely related to that causing fire- 
blight in the tulip. The disease is at least assisted in its progress by | 
lack of aeration caused by weeds and shade, which prevent the 
foliage from drying off as it should during the day. The presence 
of excessive quantities of strawy litter and particularly lack of 
drainage combined with the above furnish ideal conditions for the 
development of the fungus. 
This disease is easily recognized by the browning of the leaves 
in spots or in their entirety and the mummification and molding of 
the unopened buds. It attacks the stem leaves and the basal growth 
and is usually particularly destructive from the time the stem is a 
few inches high until the time of blossoming. 
Little can be done to stop the inroads of the trouble after it once 
gains headway. ‘Two or three applications of Bordeaux mixture at 
intervals of two weeks after growth is well started in the spring are 
quite efficacious in holding the disease in check. As is the case with 
so many bulb maladies, the main preventive is care and cleanliness 
in handling. The old foliage and stems should be removed from the 
planting and composted, to be used on other crops, so as not to al- 
low the accumulation of disease organisms in the soil for another 
year, when conditions may again be favorable for their development 
and spread. 
The American lily rust (Uromyces lili Clint.) at times is quite 
serious and likely to be particularly aggravating from the fact that 
it can get into one’s stocks at any time from native lilies, for it is 
indigenous in our northern climates. This disease is easily recog- 
nized with the unaided eye. It causes small circular to elliptical 
rusty pustules, mainly on the under sides but commonly on both 
sides of the leaves. It is likely to be particularly severe on the 
Madonna lily when seminaturalized in shaded situations, but some 
severe attacks have been noted in these investigations under open 
field conditions. 
Fortunately, the disease can be controlled by the persistent use 
of Bordeaux mixture as a spray from the time growth is well started 
in the spring up to about the time the buds begin to show. How 
often the spray should be applied will depend on weather conditions. 
Heavy rains which wash off the spray should be followed by another 
application after the weather settles. Thorough work for two sea- 
sons should eradicate the trouble unless reinfection occurs from 
native stocks or some other source. 
Many other lilies are susceptible to this disease. Our important 
Pacific coast species are subject to it, but the Easter lily (Lilium 
longiflorum) and the Regal lily (ZL. regale) are very seldom but 
slightly affected. 
Basal and edge scale rots in the bulbs of lilies are usually looked 
upon as diseases, but the writer has found no organism which seemed 
to account for the trouble. Of course, it is possible in nearly every 
case to isolate black-mold (Rhizopus), blue-mold (Penicillium), and 
Fusarium from the affected tissues, but these organisms are likely 
to be present almost everywhere, and in lily bulbs it is thought they 
are to be looked upon as a consequence of a diseased condition caused 
by some other agency. It is usual to find the bad condition of the 
