NEWS, NOTES AND REVIEWS 
The Journal of Agricultural Research for January contains an 
account by Della E. Ingram of a disease caused by a fungus which 
is referred to Diplodia longispora Cooke & Ellis. While the dis- 
ease usually attacks the chestnut oak, it may also attack the chest- 
nut and other species of oaks. The trees are not killed outright 
but may die as a result of weakening from the attacks of the 
disease. The disease gains access to the plant through wounds in 
the bark. 
Contribution No. 144 from the Botanical Department of the 
University of Michigan is a record of researches on the mycor- 
rhizas of forest trees by W. B. McDougal. As a result of this 
work, four species of fungi are added to the known list of ecto- 
tropic mycorrhiza-forming fungi, as follows: Russula sp. on Tilia 
americana, Boletus scaber fuscus on Betula alba papyrifera, Cor- 
tinarius sp. on Betula alba papyrifera , and Scleroderma vulgare 
on Quercus alba. It is stated that at least four different species 
of mushrooms may form mycorrhizas on the same tree. 
It has recently been shown by F. C. Stewart and W. H. Rankin, 
of Geneva, New York, that it is probable that Cronartium ribicola 
rarely, if ever, winters over on the currant as it has been sus- 
pected of doing from the severe outbreak of the currant rust in 
that vicinity. This rust in its aecial stage is known as Peri- 
dermium Strobi and affects those species of Pinus which have 
their leaves borne in clusters of five. The rust is perennial on the 
pine but cannot spread directly from one pine to another. The 
recent outbreak of currant rust was found to be due to two pine 
trees infected with the blister-rust. 
The New York Botanical Garden recently acquired the Myco- 
logical herbarium of William R. Gerard, who died suddenly in 
New York City, February 26, 1914. He was born in Newburgh, 
N. Y., March 26, 1841, and in boyhood entered the employment 
of a druggist in Poughkeepsie ; remaining in the same business 
until finally he became proprietor of a drug store in that city. 
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