106 BULLETIN OF THE BUSSEY INSTITUTION. 
No 10. — Notes on some Common Diseases caused by Fungi. 
By W. G. Fartow, Assistant Professor of Botany in Har- 
vard University. 
( With a Plate.) 
DurinG the past year, a number of specimens of diseases produced 
by fungi has been examined at the botanical laboratory of the Bussey 
Institution, and we take the present opportunity of giving a short 
notice of some of the more interesting fungi examined, and of answer- 
ing some of the inquiries which have been made with regard to them. 
With regard to some of the specimens sent, we are unfortunately un- 
able to give any definite answer. With regard to others, further 
study is necessary, and they will be discussed at some future date. 
In Vol. I. No. 24 of the Bussey Bulletin, we gave an account of 
the Black Knot, Spheria morbosa, Schw., with hints as to the means 
of diminishing its injurious effects. As a result of that article, speci- 
mens of knots have been received from various localities, with sugges- 
tions that they must be the same thing as the Black Knot. The 
correctness of the statement made in the Bulletin that Spheria mor- 
bosa, while very common on Prunus Virginiana, does not occur 
on Prunus serotina has been questioned. In no instance, however, 
where specimens of the knot supposed to be on Prunus serotina were 
sent, has such proved really to have been the case, but wherever there 
were leaves enough to make the determination of the species possible, 
the knots were always on Prunus Virginiana. During the past sum- 
mer, the Black Knot was found growing on Prunus maritimus, the 
beach plum, at Menemshi Bight, Martha’s Vineyard, by Mr. Vinal N. 
Edwards. ‘This adds one to the list of native species susceptible to 
the disease. Mr. 8. H. Scudder visited Black Mountain in New 
Hampshire, early in the season of 1876, and brought back specimens 
of the knot which covered the stunted forms of Prunus Pennsylvanica 
growing on the mountain. Within a few months the horticultural 
journals of California have mentioned the occurrence of a knot-like 
excrescence on the plum-trees of that State, and it would be of interest 
to know whether the knot is the same as that caused by Spheria 
morbosa in the east, which has not hitherto been noticed in California. 
