STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 2I9 



have become confluent, and the perithecia are distinct on most of them. 

 The affected apples will communicate the disease to unaffected ones in 

 some instances. I once put an apple bearing this fungus into a drawer 

 with a perfectly sound one; in a short time'the sound apple was affected 

 in like manner." 



This answers the first question ; but to stop here and simply say that 

 the cause of the decay is a fungus, without knowing something of its 

 history and habits, is of but little service to us in finding or applying a 

 remedy. In order to make this life-history more intelligible, I can 

 perhaps do no better than, first, to give a brief outline of the relation they 

 bear to the great mass of plants that go to make up the general vegeta- 

 tion. 



All plants are divided into two great divisions: Phenogams and 

 Cryptogams. The first contains all our common plants, such as trees, 

 grasses, etc., which have a regular means of propagation by flowers fol- 

 lowed by fruit containing seeds. The fertilization in these is by means 

 of pistils and stamens, and the seed always contains the germ or embryo 

 of the young plant. The growth of the seed is the development of this 

 germ. In Cryptogams there are no flowers producing fruit from which 

 seeds are obtained, but reproduction is effected by means of a minute dust 

 called spores. If the spore has any parallel in the phenogamous plant it 

 is in the incipient flower-bud before it has developed sufficiently to show 

 its distinctive character. While this analogy may not hold good with all 

 the Cryptogams, it is sufficiently true of most of them for our purpose 

 here. In the Phenogam the pistils and stamens are developed in the 

 flower-bud, and fertilization takes place after the flower opens. The 

 result of this fertilization is the germ or young plant sufficiently developed 

 and supplied with food before it leaves the parent plant that it may after- 

 ward lead an independent life. This we call a seed. The spore of the 

 Cryptogam is not only lacking anything that can be compared with the 

 germ of the Phenogam, but when it leaves the parent no organs of fertil- 

 ization can be detected. These are formed after the spore finds a resting 

 place on something suitable and develops its root-like prothallus. After 

 fertilization takes place the growth is of such a nature as to produce a 

 plant similar to the parent. This is true, with some modification, of 

 most of the Cryptogams or flowerless plants. 



The most common examples of this group of plants are ferns, mosses, 

 lichens, etc., among the lowest of which are fungi. In the higher orders, 

 such as ferns, there are root, stem and green leaves as in the flowering 

 plants; and here the green tissues digest the crude food the plant takes 

 from the earth and air. In fungi there are no green parts, consequently 

 they do not digest crude food, but take that which has already been ren- 

 dered organic and assimilate it to their own tissues. For this reason they 

 may develop in the darkness as well as in the sunlight which is so essential 

 for the growth of our higher plants. This enables them to grow in many 

 situations unsuspected until they send out their spore-cases, though their 

 thread-like filaments for some time may have ramified all parts of the 

 tissues of the substance in which they have been vegetating. 



