56 



TEE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



[February, 



forward Suckleya. It would be annoying to the 

 numerous friends of the distinguished botanist 

 if, after honoring so many others, his own name 

 should fail. There is, however, another genus 

 called Asa-Graya, so named by Lindley, allied to 

 Helonias in the Lily tribe, and which we believe 

 yields a famous Mexican drug known as Saba- 

 diUa. 



Fertilization op Campanula. — As our readers 

 know, many flowers cannot fertilize .themselves, 

 but depend on insects to help them. In this way 

 the pollen is often brought from other tiowers 

 than the ones fertilized, and this constitutes 

 what is known as "cross fertilization by insect 

 agency." In the January number of the Amer- 

 ican Agrieidturist, Dr. Asa Gray has an article- 

 written in the clear and happy maimer he is 

 noted for when he chooses to write to the popu- 

 lar mind, showing that Campanula, the well- 

 known Bell flower of our gardens, is another 

 addition to this miserably helpless class of plants. 



Variability of Conifer.?.— Our English friends 

 give specific names to numbers of forms from 

 our country that we regard scarcely as varieties, 

 not seeming to be aware how variable this class 

 of plants is, and yet facts before them often 

 seem to tea(;h this lesson. For instance, a cor- 

 respondent of the Garden says : " Of this some 

 striking examples may now be seen in Mr. Meth- 

 ven's Nursery, Edinburgh, among Lawson Cy- 

 presses raised from imported seed. Among those 

 plants possessing the most diverse habits and 

 colors, I noted the following forms, viz. : — 1. Cu- 

 pressus Lawsoniana, the dark green type, with 

 drooping leaves, and a rather lax habit. 2. C. L. 

 erecta viridis, a dense-habited bright green Thuja, 

 like shrub, of erect, almost rigid, habit. 3. C. L. 

 nana, a very dwarf glaucous form. 4. C. L. flac- 

 cida, a greenish glaucous variety, almost pendu- 

 lous. 5. C. L. glauca, a variety nearly like the 

 type in habit, but of a distinct bluish color. Be- 

 sides Ihese there were many other forms more or 

 less intermediate between them, but those num- 

 bered are quite as distinct as are many of the 

 so-called species of Abies or Finns." 



Australian Grape fungus. — Mr. Berkeley tells 

 us in the London Gardenei-'s Chroniele about a 

 fungus on the grapes of Australia tbat may in- 

 terest our peoi)le to know about. He says : 



"In the Gardener's Chronicle, June 8, 1872, p. 

 762, I gave an account of a disease which liad 

 proved extremely formidable to vines in Aus- 

 tralia, where it is known under the name of the 



"black spot." The specimens were not so perfect 

 as might have been wished, but it seemed highly 

 probable that it was due to an obscure fungus 

 belonging to the genus Glaeosporium. This, like 

 many allied fungi, is probably a mere form of some 

 more perfect organism, connected possibly with 

 it by an alternation of generations. I have now 

 numerous specimens of live shoots sent to the 

 editors by Mr. Edwin Rice, from New Senakic» 

 near the seaport of Poti Caucasus, which are 

 affected apparently in the same way, and in a 

 most disastrous condition. Varieties received 

 from England three years since equally with a 

 large quantity of vines frorn the Crimea, have 

 fallen a prey to the destructive malady, the 

 former having not at present produced a single 

 bunch of grapes. 'The malady first shows itself 

 at the latter end of June ; the leaves begin to 

 shrivel round the edges, diminish in size, and 

 partly curl up from the contraction of the edges ; 

 all the young shoots wither as soon as they ap- 

 pear, the first appearance of the disease, as ob- 

 served under a good lens, being a small blister or 

 bladder containing liquid exactly like a scald in 

 the human flesh ; this blister darkens gradually, 

 till it becomes almost black, and turns to a scale, 

 which extends and destroys not only the bark of 

 the shoots, but penetrates a considerable distance 

 into the wood. The bunches of grapes are like- 

 wise afl'ected with black spots, which eventually 

 entirely destroy them. The vines at the end of 

 the season have the appearance of plants nearly 

 scorched to death, all the young wood being con- 

 sumed, and none left for the next year's train- 

 ing.' It is curious that the American Catawba 

 is not aff"ected, a circumstance agreeing with the 

 fiict that American varieties are in great measure 

 unaffected by the oidium. On examining the 

 shoots I cannot find any perfect GliEOsporium, 

 though there are plenty of minute tubercles 

 which, from their internal structure, I should 

 conceive to be their early stage, as I find perfect 

 sporophores ; but, on the contrary, on one of the 

 specimens there is a Sphicria, whii'h appears to 

 be identical with Spha'ria acuminata, Sov., or, 

 at least, is identical with what is figured under 

 that name by Mr. Currey in the Unman Trans- 

 actions. It is quite possible that this may be the 

 perfect form of the Glaeosporium. It is greatly 

 to be hoped that the disease may not visit us 

 after the fashion of the Puccinia malvacearum." 



The Pear (Pyrus communis) and Apple (Py- 

 rus malus) are found in their wild state in the 



