FUNGOID PESTS OF CULTIVATED PLANTS. 9 



which produced infected plants ; and if not, why did not all the plants 

 suffer alike ? * 



The Rev. M. J. Berkeley records an instance in which plants of 

 Pyracantha raised from seeds imported from Russia were all killed by a 

 species of Fusicladium, whilst old plants of Pyracantha growing at the 

 same place remained perfectly free from disease.t 



At the time when the Hollyhock disease was at its height a quantity 

 of seedlings were found showing the disease in their seed-leaves : some of 

 the seeds, or carpels, which had not been used were examined, and 

 pustules of the disease were found developed on the outside, whilst 

 similar traces of disease were found in seeds of Wild Mallows. J 



Cases need not be multiplied, since we contend that the above are 

 sufficient to establish the fact that inheritance of fungoid disease must 

 be taken into account in connection with the dissemination and perpetua- 

 tion of these diseases. 



It only remains for us to intimate that in the following pages our first 

 object has been to interest and instruct the cultivator in the simplest 

 and most practical manner, which we believe would be best attained by 

 grouping the pests together according to the nature of their hosts, rather 

 than by following any purely scientific and systematic classification, which 

 would assume considerable previous knowledge, and would be better left 

 in charge of the expert. 



The grouping which has suggested itself is as follows : — 



Pests of the flower-garden ; 



,, „ vegetable-garden ; 



,, ,, fruit garden and orchard ; 



„ ,, vinery and conservatory ; 



„ ,, ornamental shubbery ; 



,, ,, forest trees ; 



„ ,, field crops. 



PESTS OF RANUNCULACEOUS PLANTS. 



Although we have included descriptions of all the ordinary diseases of 

 Ranunculaceous plants which are under cultivation, it must be remem- 

 bered that there are also a large number of fungoid pests which infest 

 wild and uncultivated plants of this order, some of which may at any 

 time invade the flower garden and commence their ravages upon their 

 cultivated kindred. Some limit being indispensable, we have been com- 

 pelled to exclude the parasites of wild plants, except in those cases where 

 they have been known to invade the garden. 



Black Hellebore Leaf-spot. 



Phyllosticta helleborella (Sacc), PI. I. fig. 1. 



The leaves of Hellebores are apt to become very much disfigured by 

 parasitic fungi, of which many species are recorded, and amongst them 

 the above-named, which made its first appearance in Italy. 



* Country Life, Sept. 19, 18G7, p. 88. 

 t Gard. Chron., Oct. 28, 1848, p. 716. % Gard. Chron., July 1, 1882, p. 23. 



