4 BULLETIN U±, U. S. DEPAETMENT OE AGEICULTTJEE. 
ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE. 
This disease is an important factor in reducing the crop of cran- 
berries in Wisconsin. In some bogs one-half of the crop may be lost 
on this account, as affected vines rarely produce any good fruit. 
Fortunately, in Massachusetts, New Jersey, and on the Pacific coast 
the disease up to the present time is confined to very small areas. 
It is very important, therefore, to avoid the introduction of diseased 
vines in new plantings. 
CAUSE. 
At present the cause of this pathological condition is uncertain. 
Careful examination and study of many specimens in the field and 
laboratory have failed to give any evidence that insects or fungi 
cause the trouble, and the writer has come to believe, from all the 
evidence at present available, that it is primarily due to some serious 
disturbance of the nutritive functions of the plant. Goebel (4) says: 
' 'In like manner there can be no doubt that the phyllody of flowers, 
a favorite domain of teratology, is a symptom of disease; it is a mis- 
birth, the cause of which we do not know in most cases." Similar 
effects, such as chloranthy, as Peyritsch (8) has shown, may be 
induced by aphides. In other cases it may be assumed that the 
power of producing reproductive organs has been enfeebled, while 
the vegetative growth has been abnormally stimulated through the 
nutritive conditions. 
Beijerinck (1 and 2) assumed the existence of certain growth 
enzyms which caused the formation of normal organs. In case of 
the transformation of organs, according to his theory, one growth 
enzym must replace another or be formed instead of it. 
In the case of the cranberry it seems possible that this striking 
metamorphy is due to some serious disturbance of the nutrition of the 
plant. A similar opinion was also expressed by Jones and Shear (5) 
as the result of a joint field study of the disease. Mr. Malde (6), 
who has observed this trouble for many years in Wisconsin, says: 
The dryness of the season seems to have reduced the amount of "false blossom *' this 
year, and from the data gathered in the Mather region, it has become more evident than 
ever that this so-called "false blossom " is due to conditions of culture rather than any 
disease affecting the plant. 
In all the localities in Wisconsin in which the writer has observed 
this malformation, there has been a deep, coarse, peat soil, supplied 
with an excessive amount of water during the greater part of the 
growing season. Of course these peat bottoms contain vast quanti- 
ties, of nitrogenous matter, but not in such form as to be available to 
ordinary farm crops. The cranberry, however, is regarded by physi- 
ologists as obtaining its nutriment chiefly by means of the endophytic 
mycorrhiza of its roots and may be able to secure an abundance of 
