t?78.1 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



315 



ever, and ultimately shut out b}' hedges of short 

 ■s'tifF hairs that topple the victim from his foot- 

 ing. A higli rim prevents return by the aperture. 

 A lonir portion of the inner side of the tube, 

 commt'neing just on a levelwith the edge of the 

 orifice, is smooth as glass, so vainl}- the poor 

 victim stretches his legs for rescuing aids to staj' 

 ijis descent. About half way down, long stilf 

 !l(>clined hairs begin to be met Avith, which give 

 away easily from above but close up behind, 

 and with multiplied numbers, as the struggling 

 victim nears the goal, pushes him down to the 

 rising flood, and crowds him beneath the silent, 

 foetid decomposing waters of oblivion. 



THE CLIMAX OF CU^TXIJirG. 



Now why the peculiar characteristics of the 

 Darlingtonia? Why would not less elaborate 

 machinery answer a-s well? Let us see : a tube 

 so capacious as to hold a half pint of insects, 

 the usual meal it seems of the Darlingtonia must 

 be very wide or very long. If wide, there would 

 be great expenditure of the saccharine secretion, 

 since it must surround the mouth and smear all the 

 approaches — an expenditure not to be incurred by 

 our economical plant. If long and prostrate, it 

 would be interfered with by other plants, also 

 would be in danger of visitation and robbery by 

 insect-loving animals. If upright and with mouth 

 upturned, it would be above the usual range of 

 insects, while its digesting tiuid would be 

 wfiakened by the reception of rain and dew ; but, 

 most of all, other plants are created and set to 

 work on tliis principle: The wonderful climate 

 and soil of California must be expected to pro- 

 duce a tinished insectivorous plant, witli all 

 possible improvements; hence, the matchless 

 Darlingtonia, with its high-reared, inflated heads, 

 downward opening month, sugar-plum, winding 

 roads to lead foot travelers up ; ingeniousl}', 

 brilliant and honey-coated decoys to attract 

 flyers; and the enormous mustaches obviously 

 turned outward by twisted petioles to catch the 

 eye of distant voyagers in every direction ; no 

 feature of all the host is either accidental, use- 

 less or uninteresting. 



[Tiie above fascinating and accurate descrip- 

 tion of this famous plant was read before the 

 California Academyof Sciences, February 18tli, 

 1878. We are glad to know that Prof. Lemmon 

 is now at work on a course of three lectures on 

 the conifers of California, and we are confident 

 that they will be of exceptional interest and ex- 

 cellence ; first, because of his full acquaintance 

 with his subjects in their habifats; nnd, second, 



from his brilliant and vavicious style of express- 

 ing his facts and ideas. We hope these lectures 

 will l)e widely heard, not only on this cost, but 

 beyond the mountains. — P. Rural Press.\ 



THE "CURL" OF THE PEACH LEAF, 

 ASCOMYCES DEFORMANS. 



nv W. II. SEAMAN, WASIIIXGTOX, I). C. 



There are few cultivators of the Peach who 

 have not been annoyed by the disease known in 

 this countr}^ as the curl and in Europe as the 

 blister. About the time the leaves are fully 

 developed in Spring they begin to twist and 

 crimp and shrivel, either in whole or in part, 

 and when the disease is very bad an occasional 

 tree will lose almost the entire foliage — a second 

 crop of leaves usualh^ quickly replacing those 

 which are destroyed. 



If an examination be made when the distoi*- 

 tions besiin to appear, they will often be found 

 infested with aphides, and a certain proportion 

 of curl in the leaf is undoubtedl}- caused by the 

 attacks of these insects. The injury they accom- 

 plish is usually very early in the season, and 

 they generally disappear entirely before the 

 disease has reached its maximum. The leaves 

 they attack often assume a reddish hue,, and 

 seem favorite places for the fungus named at 

 the head of this article, — which is the principal 

 cause of cm-1, — to commence its growth. It 

 is often difficult to say precisely how much is 

 due to tlie insect and how much to the fungus on 

 the leaves which have suflered from both, but as 

 the season advances the fungus assumes entire 

 possession of the field. Its spores lodge on the 

 surface of the leaf and immediately produce 

 small short-jointed and irregularly shaped 

 threads or mycelium that jienetrate the sub- 

 stance of the leaf, betw-een the cells of the 

 parenchyma, which is also stimulated to abnor- 

 mal growth, causing the thickening wrinkling 

 and ultimate blanching of the leaf, which are 

 the symptoms of the disease in question. For 

 some time nothing can be found on the surface 

 of the leaves, but at length a whitish filmy 

 mould may be seen in places b}- the naked eye, 

 which is a mat of fruit-bearing branches of the 

 mycelium in question, and slK)rtl,y after this is 

 produced the disease usually disappears. 



The fruit is composed of small sacs terminat- 

 ing the short erect branches that rise from the 

 leaf; generally they contain eight transparent 

 spores, and the growth of the parasite is pro- 

 moted bv warm moist weather. 



