460 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



seedlings certainly, and large trees probably, is from a fungus M'liose name is 

 unknown to me, but which is similar in habit to the Puccinia above mentioned. 

 Beyond what is commonly known, however, there is no certain remedy. These 

 pear diseases shall receive attention hereafter. 



Potatoes rot from several causes; but that which causes at times such wide- 

 spread injury to the crop is Botrytis {Feronospora) infestous, — a white mould. 

 This first attacks the leaves, then follows down the stem, and finally destroys 

 the tuber. Some varieties are more liable to suffer than others, and as in the 

 wheat, much is due to the weather. 



The ciitting-hed fungus, the plague of the propagator of plants, is a species 

 of Stilhurn ; at least this is true in the green-house of the Industrial Uni- 

 versity. I believe the species we have is undescribed. The cuttings " damp off," 

 as the gardeners say, — a single day or night often witnessing the death of hun- 

 dreds of previously healthy slips. The threads of the fungus spread with aston- 

 ishing rapidity through the damp sand, and, as if by magic touch, cause the 

 stems and leaves to decay. Fortunately, this can be controlled by reducing 

 the temperature of the "bed, and by attention to the light admitted. From 

 experiment thus far, it seems the latter is really the important thing, as a well 

 lighted and ventilated bed is rarely attacked. 



Hundreds of other instances like the above force themselves upon our obser- 

 vation. Probably no plant or animal, living or dead, really escapes. We our- 

 selves become the prey of these offending creatures ; and before we shall fully 

 understand "all the ills that fl^esh is heir to," we shall be compelled to give 

 them more study, more thorough investigation. 



