OCTOBER 27. 189S. 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



:59 



to nothing if the head spray is t)un- 



gled. 



Here's a pretty thing, try It; it is a 

 bride's book spray; many girls are 

 averse to carrying huge bouquets to 

 the altar, and when they condescend to 

 carry them, it is usually upside down. 

 The latest spray is made of three long 

 light sprays of D. phalaeuopsis tied to- 

 gether with one frond of A. Farley- 

 ense. Twist the stems with No. 2 cat- 

 tleya ribbon, and tie a cluster bow of 

 same up near the flowers. It makes a 

 beautiful spray and is light for the 

 bride to carry — any long spray of 

 white orchid will do. IVERA. 



CHRYSANTHEMUM-RUST. 

 ( Puccinia Hieracii, Mart, i 

 This very destructive parasite be- 

 longs to a group of fungi that have a 

 bad record from the farmers' and hor- 

 ticulturists' standpoint. It includes 

 such species as Puccinia malvacearum. 

 the Hollyhock-rust; P. graminis. tb.e 

 rust of wheat; and numerous others. 

 equally injurious to cultivated plants. 

 All the species are true parasites, 

 and in many instances produce three 

 or four very different-looking forms of 

 fruit, and live on different plants dur- 

 ing different seasons of the year. As 

 an illustration may be mentioned the 

 rust of Wheat, which in the spring 

 produces its first form of fruit on the 

 young leaves of the common Barber- 

 ry; the spores or reproductive bodies 

 of this form are carried by wind, and 

 inoculate the young leaves of Wheat, 

 giving origin to the form of fruit 

 called rust; later in the season a third 

 form of fruit is produced on the Wheat 

 leaves. The third form of fruit rests 

 during the winter, and on the return of 

 spring germinates, the minute spores 

 produced being borne by wind on to 

 the surface of damp leaves of the Bar- 

 berry, where they germinate and enter 

 the tissues of the leaf, and in about a 

 fortnight's time produce the form of 

 fruit, which in turn again inoculates 

 the young Wheat-plant. 



In the Chrysanthemum-rust the life- 

 history of the fungus is somewhat 

 simpler than in the examples described 

 above: it produces only two forms of 

 fruit, and both are developed on the 

 same kind of plant, the Chrysanthe- 

 mum. 



The form of fruit too much In evi- 

 dence just now on Chrysanthemum- 

 leaves is what is termed the uredo 

 stage, or summer form of fruit. The 

 use of this form of fruit is to enable 

 the fungus to extend its range of dis- 

 tribution as widely and quickly as pos- 

 sible. If a small portion of the pow- 

 der contained in one of the rust-color- 

 ed -pustules on a leaf is examined un- 

 der the microscope, it is found to con- 

 sist of myriads of pale brown, minute- 

 ly-warted. roundish cells or spores, 

 each of which is capable of germinat- 

 ing the moment it is mature. As is too 

 well known, when the disease has once 

 appeared, its spread is rapid. The 

 spores are produced in rapid succes- 



sion throughout the summer; as fast 

 as they become ripe they fall away, 

 and are carried by rain. wind, water- 

 ing, syringing, the clothes of jrarden- 

 ers. &c.. from one plant to another — 

 an easy matter where the plants aro 

 more or less crowded together. Every 

 spore that happens to alight on the 

 surface of a damp Chrysanthemum- 

 leaf germinates quickly, pierces the 

 tissue of the leaf, and in about a 

 week's time produces a heap of ripe 

 spores, ready in turn to continue the 

 work of extending the disease. The 

 above account is no exaggeration of 



Chrysa themum-Rust: Puccinia Hieracii. 



A, Leaf affected with "ru=t." 



li, Ur=do- or summer-sppres, magn. 400 diam. 



c, Puccinia spores, or winter spores, magn. 400 diam. 



what happens, and will. I trust, make 

 clear to every one interested the man- 

 ner in which the disease spreads. Later 

 in the season, when the cultivator has 

 lost all interest in the diseased plants, 

 the same mycelium of the fungus 

 which during the earlier part of the 

 season has been producing myriads of 

 summer spores, now gives origin to an 

 entirely different form of fruit called 

 "teleutospores." or winter spores. 

 These latter differ in form from the 

 summer spores, in being formed of two 

 cells, and more especially in the fact 

 that the winter spores will not germ- 

 inate until after a period of rest, re- 

 maining in a quiescent state until the 

 following spring, when they germinate 

 and produce minute spores, some of 

 which find their way on to the Chry- 

 santhemum leaves, germinate, enter 

 the tissues of the leaf, and in a short 

 time give origin to the uredo, or sum- 

 mer condition of the fungus. 



Soon after the winter spores are de- 

 veloped, the Chrysanthemum leaves 



die and fall: when all the leaves have 

 fallen, the plant is absolutely free 

 from disease, that is to say, there is 

 no permanent mycelium of the fungus 

 left in the plant, so that if it com- 

 menced to grow the next season it 

 would be perfectly free from disease, 

 and would remain so unless inoculated 

 by the bodies produced by the winter 

 spores as described above. 



Summary. — The Chrysanthemum- 

 rust disease is entirely the result of 

 plants becoming inoculated by the 

 resting spores produced by the fungus 

 the previous year. 



Too much care cannot be exercised 

 in collecting and burning all disease! 

 leaves, and this should be done early 

 in the season before the winter spores 

 are formed on the leaves. From the 

 above account it will be seen how dif- 

 ficult it is to check the disease, if the 

 summer form of the fungus once gains 

 a foothold. A single dead leaf bear- 

 ing teleutospores lurking in a corner 

 is more than sufficient to secure a crop 

 the following season. 



Where the disease has previously ex- 

 isted, it would be wise to spray at in- 

 tervals during the early part of the 

 season with a solution of potassium 

 sulphide — half an ounce to a gallon of 

 water — as a preventive. This solution 

 destroys germinating spores before 

 they pierce the cuticle and enter the 

 tissues of the leaf. 



Finally, it must be remembered that 

 the Chrysanthemum-rust is very com- 

 mon on many of our wild Composite 

 plants, Hawkweeds, Burdocks, &e., 

 and care must be taken that the dis- 

 ease is not introduced by this means. — 

 G. Massee in Gardeners' Chronicle. 



DISTILLED WATER. 



A subscriber from the Pacific coast 

 sends the following; "As our water 

 contains too much salt (we are near 

 the ocean) we cannot grow any ferns 

 or roses under glass. How would dis- 

 tilled water do? Can any of your sub- 

 scribers tell anything from their ex- 

 perience? We have an abundance of 

 distilled water." 



The question has been referred to 

 me, and my experience with distilled 

 water extends only to having to drink 

 it on board a seventh class ocean 

 steamer, and we remember that unless 

 something is added to it to "take off' 

 the flatness it is not likely that you 

 will drink enough to produce dropsy or 

 any other so-called "tank" diseases. 



As the process of distillation elimi- 

 nates the salt I do not see why the 

 distilled water should not be perfectly 

 relishable to the plants. A better au- 

 thority should, however, be consulted. 

 It seems strange that greenhouses 

 should be built so close to the shore 

 that the salt water impregnates the 

 soil. In a climate where no freezing of 

 pipes is feared, a well could be dug or 

 drilled half a mile distant from high 

 tide and the water conducted by pipe 

 to the greenhouse location with little 

 expense, particularly if it came by 



