154 Report oF THE BoTANIST OF THE 
With all of these plants the trouble is not due to a gradual 
drying, but to a sudden scorching by the transpiration of more 
water from the leaves than the roots are able to supply. 
INTRODUCTION. 
It is not an uncommon thing for the foliage of various plants 
to be injured by excessive transpiration. Such injury may be 
brought about in either of two ways: (1) By a process of gradual 
drying, such as occurs in plants suffering from drought, and (2) 
By sudden scorching, as when a fire is built under a tree. With 
the first kind of injury every one is familiar and those living in 
the arid and semi-arid portions of our country have frequently 
observed the latter kind. In Kansas, for example, dry, hot south- 
west winds often ruin promising crops of corn in two or three days. 
But here in the, East, the sudden scorching of foliage by hot 
wind and sun is of such rare occurrence that it attracts attention 
and is generally misunderstood by farmers and fruit growers. It 
is frequently mistaken for infectious disease. The object of this 
bulletin is to place upon record some observations on the sudden 
scorching of the foliage of sugar beet, cherry, cauliflower and 
maple, due to excessive transpiration. 
LEAF SCORCH OF SUGAR BEET.’ 
About the middle of August, 1899, some farmers in Yates and 
Ontario counties wrote to the Station that their sugar beets were 
blighting. On August 29, the writer visited several of the af- 
fected fields and found the so-called blight to be characterized 
as follows: On slightly affected plants the only indication of dis- 
ease was to be seen in the brown or black, dead leaf margins. In 
more severe cases the young leaves at the center of the crown 
were black and dead, as were also the blades of most of the leaves. 
Many plants showed nothing green but the petioles of the larger 

1 For the illustrations used in this bulletin, the author is indebted to Mr. 
F. H. Blodgett, Assistant Botanist and Entomologist. 
