284 



THE GARDENERS' MONTHLY 



[September, 



come was considered by hisfellow florists to be enor- 

 mous. In cut flower work he had the run of the best 

 custom worl<, being fortunate in a first-class helper in 

 this in his excellent wife. Anxious to retire from the 

 business he some twenty years ago sold the ground 

 for a handsome figure to the Academy of Natural 

 Sciences, and his grand old camellias were sold 

 and the collection dispersed. Since that time he 

 has sunk so completely out of sight in his retire- 

 ment, that it was only by a paragraph in the 

 morning paper that we knew of his decease last 

 month, and had to inquire of some of the few old 

 fellows still living to be sure of the identity of the 

 good old man. He came to Philadelphia origin- 

 ally from Scotland, and was in his 74th year at 

 his decease. 



Charles Wright. ^As we go to press the 

 telegraph announces the death of this eminent 

 botanist, which occurred on his farm at Weathers- 

 field, Connecticut, on the nth of August, in his 

 seventy-fourth year. He was found dead in his 

 barn. Mr. Wright was one of the earliest of what 

 might be termed the modern race of enthusiastic 

 collectors along our Mexican borders, who have 

 done so much to make the flora of that section 

 known to us. His name must be familiar to 

 nearly all plant-lovers in some one plant or 

 another that has been named for him. As we 

 pen these remarks two pretty things — Pavonia 

 Wrightii and Scutellaria Wrightii — are blooming 

 before us, mementoes of the earnest labors 

 amidst difficulties and danger modern explorers 

 are mostly exempt from, but which beset the 

 early wanderers over our continent. Since "our 

 time," Mr. Wright has been somewhat retired, and 

 the writer never had the pleasure but of one brief 

 introduction to him. But we shall no doubt have 

 a full tribute to his life and eminent services from 

 his co-laborers at Cambridge in due season. 



The Elm Leaf I5eetle The Entomological 



division of the Department of Agriculture has is- 

 sued a full account of this destructive creature. All 

 that is known of its history or means for its de- 

 struction are fully stated. 



American Fruit Culturist By J. J. Thom- 

 as. New Edition. New York : William Wood & 

 Co. 1885. 



If the demand for a work is a proof of its value, 

 we have the test here, for this has been through so 

 many since about 1850, we believe, since the first 

 one appeared that we have lost the exact record. 

 Besides the cultural directions, which from the pen 

 of so practical an author as Mr. Thomas must 



have a more than ordinary value, the descriptions 

 of fruits have been brought under better systems 

 of classifications which make it easier than before 

 to find out the name of an unknown fruit. But 

 even yet this will be no easy task. The full de- 

 scriptions of the best fruits are given in the body of 

 the work, and the mere names of these with the 

 brief descriptions of those that are not regarded as 

 best, occupy 84 pages of the index. 



Transactions of the Massachusetts Hor- 

 ticultural Society. — We are indebted to the 

 able Secretary of the Massachusetts Horticultural 

 Society, Mr. Robt. Manning, for the transactions for 

 the past year. They have been for some time on 

 our table waiting this acknowledgment. The 

 essays and discussions at the monthly meetings are 

 given in full. A copy of this work makes mem- 

 bership in this Society a great privilege. 



Report of Prof. J. C. Arthur, Botanist 

 to the New York Agricultural Station, 

 1884. — Even to this day there are excellent horti- 

 culturists who doubt whether small microscopic 

 organisms in the vegetable kingdom are capable 

 of originating disease in plants. They believe 

 they always follow disease. To these, such a re- 

 port as this will be welcome if they have any 

 desire to learn how far they may be wrong. Mr. 

 Arthur shows that, when persons talk of fungi they 

 refer to as many forms of vegetable beings as 

 they would if discoursing of the higher grades of 

 flowering plants. There are thousands of them, 

 and just as there are parasites among higher plants 

 and plants that feed parasites. — so there are fun- 

 guses that will injure other plants, and funguses 

 that are no harm at all. The gray color, familiar 

 to all who know lilac bushes, and called lilac- 

 mildew, comes from a small fungus known as 

 Microsphaeria Friesii, — it does not injure a lilac 

 bush; but the potato fungus, Perenospora infestans, 

 undoubtedly kills its host. So with remedies. 

 Though sulphur is a foe to many kinds of these 

 lower forms it is quite likely some one would find 

 a fungus that would grow and wax fat on a block 

 of sulphnr. 



In this paper. Prof, .\rthur studies the fungous 

 diseases of the apple, pear, quince, peach, tomato, 

 oats, clematis, and Canada thistle. He goes over 

 again the work of Prof. Burrill, in regard to Bac- 

 teria causing Fire-blight in the pear, with results 

 confirming them. The great difficulty we find in 

 following Prof. Arthur in his details is the uncer- 

 tainty whether we all understand the same thing 

 by the same terms. He considers Twig-blight and 



