140 THE FLORIST. 



THE DISEASE IN PELARGONIUMS: 



WHAT IS IT? AND WHENCE ITS ORIGIN? 



In a recent Number of your Miscellany, our friend Mr. Beck informs 

 us that he is trying to give the " spot" to some Geraniums; an ex- 

 periment in which I fear he will not find much difficulty, though he 

 may fail in his object, which 1 doubt not is to discover the why and 

 wherefore of its origin. I should have been better pleased if he had 

 told us how to prevent the " spot," and some other diseases to which 

 Pelargoniums are heir ; I say heir to, for I have no doubt many 

 of our leading varieties are the sickly offspring of diseased and con- 

 stitutionally bad parents, which, to attain a desired object, such as 

 intense colour or peculiar form, have been bred "in and in," until 

 they are so palsied, if I may be allowed the term, that there is not 

 one particle of healthy or life-invigorating sap in their veins ; and 

 hence, though they be brilliant in colour, they are too delicate to 

 become of general utility. Some kinds, I am quite sure, from the 

 first dawn of infancy to the present moment, never were healthy ; 

 but as I do not wish to draw invidious comparisons, I shall not enu- 

 merate the varieties. 



That the fancies should be equally if not more subject to disease 

 than the larger kinds, is quite in the nature of things ; for having 

 originated in disease, as I have no doubt the class did, it is natural 

 that they should be constitutionally delicate, and subject to be af- 

 fected with the slightest change of treatment ; and I have had ample 

 proof that this disease is transmittable, and that from a diseased 

 jDarent, more especially on the female side, it is impossible to get 

 healthy offspring ; and even the rule, which prevails to some extent 

 as a remedial measure in the animal kingdom, that of breeding from 

 a coarse or almost wild male, does not stand good here ; for we have 

 now before us distinct and decided crosses from the Cape species as 

 full of disease as they can be. 



But what is this disease ? It is the " spot," and something 

 more, a sort of gangrene or palsy, which assails and undermines the 

 whole system of the plant, and is alike conspicuous in the flower, 

 the stem, and the leaf, rendering the stem brittle as a piece of glass, 

 and imparting to the surface of the leaf a polished glossy, nay 

 glassy appearance. Sometimes the stem becomes discoloured and 

 black, as if bruised, and the centre or pith of the plant will also be 

 found discoloured. Like gout in the animal frame, high feeding is 

 favourable to it ; but in poor soil, if clean and healthy, the less viru- 

 lent does it become. A cold, close, damp atmosphere is favourable 

 to its progress, as is a warm moist one also. Soils strongly impreg- 

 nated with oxide of iron induce the disease, and very rich manures, and 

 composts improperly aerated and mellowed also tend to produce itc 



Two years back, when the potato disease first made its appear- 

 ance at this place, two plants standing on a south border in the open 

 air, to ripen prior to being cut down, were struck in one night with 

 this disease, though previously perfectly healthy ; and with all the 



