SOME PROPERTIES OF TWO SPHERICAL VIRUSES ISOLATED FROM GERANIUMS IN BRITAIN

Ringspot symptoms have been reported several times from geraniums but the causal agent has not been identified in most cases. Hollings (1957a) reported a ringspot in ivy-leaved geranium which could be transmitted by grafting to zonal seedlings, symptoms showing after an incubation period of 10 to 12 months. McWhorter (1957) attributed chlorotic spots and rings in geranium to tomato spotted wilt virus, though he was unable to isolate the virus from geraniums. Reinert et al. (1963) obtained tomato ringspot virus from plants showing ringspot symptoms but it is not clear if this virus alone could cause the symptoms observed. Rydén (1972) also attributed pelargonium ringspot to tomato ringspot virus. The present paper describes two viruses that were isolated from cultivars 'Penny Irene' and 'Paul Crampel' showing chloritic ringspotting on the older leaves. They differ in properties from any virus previously isolated.