200 Report oF THE BoOTANIST OF THE 
Later, the work of the same insect was found sparingly at 
Kinderhook, Highland and Clintondale and very abundantly at 
Tarrytown; but in all these cases on bearing bushes. 
It seems probable that the injuries of the four-lined leaf-bug 
are often mistaken for fungous leaf spot. Currant growers should 
learn to distinguish between these two kinds of leaf spot. The 
insects, being small and very active, are not much in evidence. 
The spots which they produce differ from fungous spots in being 
transparent. ‘They attack chiefly the leaves near the tips of the 
canes. 
CANE BLIGHT. 
The most destructive disease of currants in the Hudson Valley 
the past season was a cane blight. The leaves on one or more 
canes in a hill suddenly wilt and soon thereafter the canes die 
and become dry. ‘The disease may be confined to a single short 
branch or it may affect several large canes. The entire hill may 
eventually succumb, but this rarely happens during the first sea- 
son of attack. It commenced early in May and continued through- 
out the whole season, being most active while the fruit was 
ripening. 
We first became acquainted with this cane blight in June, 1896, 
when specimens of it were sent to us from Marlboro. From these 
specimens it appeared that the trouble was due to a sterile fungus 
working in the pith and under the bark. Through the kindness 
of Mr. S. A. Beach it was learned that Mr. D. G. Fairchild had 
made a brief study of the same disease in 1891 and had given a talk 
upon it before the Botanical Club of the American Association for 
the Advancement of Science at its meeting in Washington in 
August, 1891. He attributed it to a sterile fungus. A short 
account of this talk was published in the Botanical Gazette for 
September, 1891, page 262. 
Before having an opportunity to study the disease in the field 
we learned that Dr.. E. J. Durand, of Cornell University, was 
