The Weekly Florists' Review, 



42 J 



to the line, and if it has any bad defects 

 in its general character state it frankly 

 and do not send it out, or do so stating 

 it plainly. 



1)0 not get the idea into your head that 

 you mu:*t la\inch a collection of new 

 sorts on the market every year. Do not 

 even think that the trade expects one 

 new variety every season. Better go 



slow, if you have the good of tliis society 

 at heart. It were better to count the in- 

 troductions of ten years of j'our best 

 efiforts on the lingers of one hand — yes, 

 or even on the index finger — than send 

 out a host of worthless varieties to cause 

 endless confusion, disappointment and 

 loss to your fellows. 



In the discussion of Mr. Fisher's paper. 

 Ml'. L. E. Marquisee said he had found 

 February and March the best time to 

 cross-fertilize the Howers. He thought 

 the plants then had more stamina and 

 were in better condition-. 



Mr. Fisher responded that by crossing 

 in October the seed ripened early enough 

 to sow and produce plants large enough 

 to plant out in the spring and you could 

 then see three-fourths of the flowers be- 

 fore frost came, and need not house those 

 that gave no promise of being of value. 

 In niid-wintcr he found it difficult to get 

 pollen of various sorts to work with, and 

 plants from seed sown in the spring were 

 often too late to Avork to advantage that 



season, ft must be kept over till the fol- 

 lowing fall, aird in this case the seed 

 loses in vitality. The soc.l i;( ) iiiiri:ilrs 

 more quickly if sown imiiirili:ii i l\ wli.n 

 ripe. The plants also taki' ii l»iiri ImiI.I 

 when planted early while tlun' !■< mIjuh 

 dant sunshine and before artificial heat 

 is needed in the houses. 



Mr. Ward said his experience had bcerr 

 the same, but that he didn't get as much 

 seed in the fall as in the spring, the pods 

 were not so large and the seed didn't 

 develop so well as in the spring. One ad- 

 vaTit^iyc (if crossing in October was that 

 th.' |ihirils were then miturally vigorous, 

 ]ii..\ iiiiiiL: llie sea.son had been a favorable 



Mr. Witterstaettcr said he had been 

 breeding from the same colors to get col- 

 ors true, always making sure that the 

 varieties worked with had desirable con- 

 stitution and habit. Adonis was the re- 

 sult of four or five generations of scarlet 

 sorts and Estelle was desceirded from six 

 acnerations of scarlets. In crossing 

 tliose two varieties he had obtained no 

 departure from the color type except in 

 a very few cases. 



Mr. Fisher indorsed this plan and 

 thought that if followed by hybridizers 

 generally it would result in the eradica- 

 tion of useless or undesirable colors. 



Mr. Ward said he also was growing 

 his seedliiTgs in blocks of color and work- 

 ing along the lines indicated by Mr. Wit- 

 terstaetter. 



The thanks of the society were ten- 

 dered to Mr. Fisher for his valuable pa- 

 ]ivi- liy a rising vote. 



THE CARNATION IN HEALTH 



AND DISEASE, 



Feb. 21. laOI. by 

 i vision of VPKe- 

 V. U. S. Depart- 



When your secretary requested me to 

 prepare a paper on carnations for this 

 meeting 1 was tempted to ask to be ex- 

 cused. The fact is I know eomparati-voly 

 little about carnations and that little is 

 bound up with the question of disca?cs, 

 especially the one formerly known as 

 '"baeteriosis" but now as stigmonose or 

 "puncture disease." The various diseases 

 of the carnation so far as they are known 

 have been very ably discussed oir a num- 

 ber of different occasions at your meet- 

 ings. You have as a society been very 

 fortunate in having the untiring efforts 

 of such eminent botanists as Dr. Arthur, 

 Prof. Halsted and Prof. Atkinson, as well 

 as so many expert growers and skilled 

 observers among your members. The re- 

 ports of your meetings are always of 

 great interest and value. I can add little 

 that is new on the important diseases 

 of carnations to what has already been 

 presented at your meetings and printed 

 iff your reports. 



I shall therefore confine myself in this 

 paper in large part to the disease which 

 you will probably recognize better by its 

 old name "Baeteriosis" than by its new 

 name "Stigmonose." I have had a good 

 deal to say about this disease in the past 

 and I regret that my motive in saying 

 it has by some been misunderstood. It 

 was irot my desire to discredit the work 

 of any investigator. If anything I have 

 said or written leaves this impression I 

 hope to correct it here, and to present 

 more fully than I have done before some 

 facts regarding the varying resistance of 

 carnations to this and other diseases. 



The distiirctive character of Stigmonose is 

 the development in the leaf of translucent 

 spots varying in size from l)eing ju.st 

 barely visible when examined by trans- 

 mitted light to spots 1-16 of an inch or 

 more in diameter. The diseased plants 

 (inally become of a yellowish sickly color, 

 and more or less stuirted in growth, and 

 Ihe lower leaves die. When a plant be- 

 comes very badly diseased it seldom en- 

 tirely recovers though it rarely dies out- 

 right. Two types of the disease arc rec- 

 ognized; the one with circular spots is 

 produced by aphis punctures and the 

 other with elongated spots by thrips. 

 This difference is well brought out in 

 the illustrntion^. KiL"=. 1 and 2. * 



This liuiihir \\;i- lirst described before 

 thisso(i.i\ l>\ Hr \iiliiir. The honor of 

 its scirntiiii ili-r.\.iy and description 

 as a (li-.i. 111. I, Inn- belongs to him. 

 The exari num.' :nhl i ause of the malady 

 has, hn\M\.i. Ih.ii mure or less in dis- 

 pute. At I III- mill wlicn Dr. Arthur and 

 Prof. Bollcy investigated the disease it 

 was not known that the punctures of 

 aphides, thrips, and red spiders produced 

 any far reaching pathological changes in 

 the plant except to retard growth. The 

 clear or yellowish translucent dots which 

 characterize the disease were suggestive 

 of slow growing bacteria or fungi. It 

 was a very natural thing therefore to 

 search for such organisms in the dis- 

 eased tissues. A microscopic examina- 

 tion revealed the presence of small bodies 

 in the diseased cells, markedly resembling 

 bacteria and which any one might easily 

 mistake for such. 



Bacteria as a rule grow readily on vari- 

 ous substances as cooked potato and gela- 

 tine, and in dilute broths of various 

 kinds. It is possible in this way to ob- 

 tain pure cultures or colonies of any spe- 

 cific form. After much work Dr. Arthur 



rfltS-r^Tfrfurrrrr*- 



i 



.jT.--'rt"^'T-%'i'rf4i 



PI?. 3. Photogrrapli of a cross section of a 

 healtliy carnatiou leaf. The vascular bundles 

 are darker and heavier- walled than the rest of 

 ■ ■ " shown In 



the tissue. Five of these bundles ! 



layer of thin-- 



.-.-111 lined 



The Carnition la Health and Disease. 



and Prof. Bolley obtained pure cultures 

 of a yellow bacterium associated with 

 the disease which grew well upon arti- 

 ficial media under conditions similar to 

 those in the leaf. They now took several 

 plants which they believed to be perfectly 

 healthy and put some of these germs on 

 the young leaves and after several weeks 

 the parts of the leaves where the germs 

 were applied became diseased. One might 

 naturally conclude, therefore, as Dr. 

 Arthur and Prof. Bolley did, that the 

 bacteria were the cause of the disease. 



