282 BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 
taste.and zeal, but I shall give you an account of them some other 
time. Milne has been actively employed collecting at all the places he ; 
has visited, and improves much in his way of preparing specimens.’ 
Botanical News from Italy. 
Florence, 13th July. 
Part of my communication must again be concerning the diseases of 
plants, a topic which unfortunately promises fair to be inexhaustible 1n 
this country. As I told you in my last letter, not only has the disease 
of the Vine, but also a disease of the Corn, made its appearance ; and 
now I see in an account of the Meeting of the Accademia dei Geor- 
gofili (of Florence), held on June the 5th, that one of the members 
exhibited branches of the Mulberry-tree, the leaves of which were com- 
pletely spoiled by the effect of what is here called fersa, seccume, or ma- 
rino. This disease is well known*; it formed the subject of long dis- 
cussions in the scientific meetings held annually in Italy before the 
events of 1848; it is considered by some as caused by the presence of 
a parasitical fungus, first described about ten years ago by Dr. Sandri. 
The damage is usually limited to a small portion of the leaf, the rest 
of which remains untouched, and can therefore be given for food to the 
silkworms; but this year the whole surface of the leaf has been at- 
tacked, and to such an extent that breeders of silkworms have been 
obliged to throw away a considerable quantity of the caterpillars be- 
cause either they had no food àt all to give them, or the little that was 
left had risen to an enormous price. It is to be remarked that the 
Mulberry-tree of the Philippines has resisted the disease much better 
than the common one, in the same way that the American kinds of 
Vine have done compared to the European species. 
Several other notes concerning diseases of plants were communicated 
in the above-mentioned meeting by different persons. Everybody 15 
alive to the importance of this subject, and observations, good, bad, 
indifferent, are daily accumulated. The scientific periodicals of Northern 
Italy contain many memoirs, reports, etc. on the subject; but as they 
throw no new light on the several points under discussion, it is need- 
less that I should give any further account of them. 
* The Mulberry disease has also made its appearance in the southern parts of 
France; according to Montagne, the fungus accompanying it in that country is the 
Fusisporium cingulatum, Mont. — ' 
