46 



FOREIGN NOTICES. 



FOREIGN NOTICES, 



TiiK Enp:lis!i Iinrlicultiirisls seem to bo siiflering 

 this season with a p;reat luiniber of vegt'tahle niala- 

 ilics, not common in tiiat climate. Dr. Lindi.ey, 

 in the leailing article of the last number of the 

 Gardener's Chronicle, sajs, — "An alarm has arisen 

 among: some of our correspondents as to the state 

 of various kinds of plants in which they think 

 symptoms of tntu/^i/dl disrosc are appearing; and 

 they are apprehensive lest such g-eneral aiFections in 

 the vegetable world should be forerunners of like 

 plagues in tlie animal." Sorr.e of these correspon- 

 dents have forwarded for examination shoots of the 

 Lilac and common Laurel, " the young- leavesand 

 shoots of which were dying back, afler becoming 

 spotted, much in the manner of the potatoes, and 

 here and there the lowest part of the shoots, next 

 the old wootl, was black and brittle, exactly as in 

 the Potato haulm next the olil tuber." In other dis- 

 tricts the trees of the Pine family are suflering great- 

 ly. " Mr. Ayri.s, of Brookland, says that at 

 Blackheath the whole of the foliage is falling olF 

 the Spruces and Larches, and though a few new 

 branches are breaking out, their numbers are so few 

 that the trees must be removed. At Wrexham, 

 hundreds of Larches, 4 to 12 years old, are liying 

 off this season. The disease seems to prevail mostly 

 among trees of the age above mentioned. In a 

 plantation about 30 years old, not one seems to be 

 affecled. The leaders and most of the upper bran- 

 ches are quite bare of leaves; and the lower ones 

 seem scorched, and only just alive. These trees 

 have hitherto grown very rapidly.^' 



Last season, in England, was just the reverse of 

 ours; being a very ?-a?'7H/ one, and causing an ex- 

 ceedingly gross and luxuriant grow:)!. To this 

 cause Dr. Lindi.ey is inclined to attribute the 

 unusual signs of disease. lie says, <' We do not 

 recognize in these symptoms anything incompati- 

 ble with a watery condition of last year's wood; 

 arising not so much from excess of water in the 

 autumn, as from want of heat and light to carry it 

 out of the system. Under these circumstances it 

 may be easily conceived that the resinous secretions, 

 necessary to the health of coniferous trees, were in- 

 adequately dc])Osited, and that now, when giow.h 

 recommences, the young leaves cannot find in their 

 neighborhood their food, (or organizable matter), 

 in such a state that they can assimilate it. The 

 result of that must necessarily be that the foliage 

 will drop off; and the probability is that, in such 

 cases, the wood will die back or prove permanently 

 diseased." In the case of the lilacs, &,c., the dis- 

 ease is attributed to tlie insufTicient manner in which 

 the wood of most plants was ripened last autumn. 



We have referred to this more particularly from 

 its analogy to the same thing, which every year 

 hajipens more or less in this countrj- — especially in 

 the Western States, where from the depth and rich- 

 ness of the soil, the wood is often left in an unripe 

 stale when winter sets in. The pear-tree, being 

 the most susceptible of all fruit trees, is in many 

 places, from this cause, almost always afTected by 



the blight — wliich is the result of a winter's cold 

 on unripeneil wood. 



The PoTAro Disease. There is every reason 

 to suppose that the Potato <' murrain" will be 

 worse in England this season than last. Many per- 

 sons in Englanil have already tried experiments by 

 growing sets, carefully selected and planted, in pits 

 and hotbeds — anil almost uniformly the roots have 

 rotted as soon as they ha\ e ripeneil. Anil this too 

 in some cases when the plants were so situated as 

 not to be exposcil to wet. In the south of Europe 

 the ilisease is spreading rapidly, and the potatoes 

 from Lisbon then (.May 30lh) on sale in the Lon- 

 ilon markets were saiil to be one sixth discaseil. 



It is stated in the Ganlenor's Chronicle that the 

 same ilisease, or one apparently identical with it, 

 has brolien out and "assumed a putrid virulent 

 form" among the Yams in Jamaica. It is feared 

 that it may destroy the food of the West India isl- 

 ands, as it has done that of Ireland, and thus the 

 suH'erings of the Colonies there may be as great as 

 that of the poorer classes in the latter country. 



Drying Plants. — " In drying plants for a her- 

 barium care must be taken not to press them so much 

 as to crush them. Succulents and plants that drop 

 their leaves, such as Heaths, should be dipped in 

 hot water before they are jiressed. Each specimen 

 should be placed between a sheet of brown paper, 

 and between each filled sheet several empty ones 

 should be placed. For the first day or two the 

 pressure should be only just sufTicient to prevent the 

 leaves and llowers fiom shrivelling. When the 

 papers become damp the jilants should be shifted to 

 dry ones, increasing the jn-cssure after every shift 

 till the specimens are i)erfcctly dry." — Gardener'f 

 Chronicle. 



To DESTROY Slugs. — "We strongly advise all 

 who are attacked by slugs to try the effect of lime 

 water, *vvhich does not at all injure any croj), and im- 

 mediately destroys the animal. To make the appli- 

 cation ellicicnt, it is, however, necessary to use it 

 late in the evening and very early in the morning, 

 say at day-break, when the slugs are feeding A 

 coujile of applications of lime-water has comjilelely 

 exterminated legions of slugs under oui- own eyes." 

 Lindley. lb. 



A correspondent of the Chronicle adds from his 

 own experience: "The following mixture will 

 kill slugs; gas water, 1 gallon; water, 6 gallons: 

 lime, as much as it will take up. 'I'his beais plain 

 lime water or gas water." 



The Noisette Rose. — The Noisette liose is 

 said by Mr. Itivers to have been raised fiom seed by 

 M. Philip Noisette, of Charleston, America, and 



* Lime-water is made by throwing a piece of quick lime 

 of the size of one's fist iiil-) a pail oi water WI.eii it i.s il.s- 

 solved, let it stand for sor.x time tn stttle, wlieii tlie clear 

 water should be poured ofl and is ready for u.?c. — [Ku.] 



