260 Annual Report for 1906 of the Consulting Botanist. 
This obscure injury was noticed in 1892 by Jul. Wortmann 
( Landw . J ahrhucher , 1892, Hefte 3 and 4), who gave it the 
name “ Little spots (Stippen) of apples.” He considered the 
malady to be due to a superabundance of an acid in the apple. 
Dr. C. Brick, of the Pflanzenschutz Station, Hamburg, who 
has a very extensive acquaintance with imported fruit, writes 
that he has frequently observed this injury on Australian and 
American apples. He calls the appearance also “ Stippflecke.’ 
Dr. Sorauer gives, in his Handbook of Plant Diseases , now 
publishing in parts (pp. 166-169), an account of this malady. 
He examined the apples carefully, but failed to discover any 
Fig. 2. — Section through one of the dark spots in the apple. 
fungus connected with the spots. He shows that in 1904, 
which was a very dry season on the Continent, the apples 
were all more or less injured in the same way as those from 
Worcestershire, especially those which have soft and tender . 
flesh. This is confirmed by the apples sent to the laboratory. 
They belonged to the varieties “ Warner’s King,” “ New 
Hawthornden,” “Lord Grosvenor,” and “ Allington Pippin” — 
all soft fleshy fruits. Dr. Sorauer points out that the brown 
cells in the diseased apples contain quantities of stored food, 
chiefly along the inside wall. In dry seasons the progress of 
the sap necessary for the development of the fruit is hindered 
by the want of water, so that some groups of cells, deprived 
of their food, become exhausted. The beginning of the injury 
must be looked for in an early stage of the developing fruit. 
